BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


W*t* 


sM 


|H  I 

^*5 


9. 


if. 


mm 


<f 


■Ni    ^rrX 


ENOUGH  OF  WAR! 


» 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2Q07  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/enoughofwarquestOOferrrich 


ENOUGH  OF  WAR! 


-«•>> 


THE  QUESTION  OF 


SLAVERY 


CONCLUSIVELY  AND   SATISFACTORILY  SOLVED, 


AS   REGARDS 


HUMANITY  AT  LARGE 


AND   THE 


PERMANENT  INTERESTS  OF  PRESENT  OWNERS 


BT 


D.  JOSE  FERRER  DE  COUTO,  I  S  *t  o  - 
// 

Knight  of  the  Order  of  Santiago;  Commander  of  the  Royal  American  Order  a' 

Isabella  Cat6lica;  Knight  of  the  Oine?  of  Chariest  the  III"  Honorary  Member 

of  the  Mexican  Geographical  and  {Statistical  Society  Fellow  of  the 

Commission  of  the  History  of  Spanish  Infantry,  of  the  Royal 

Academy  of  Archscology  and  Geography  of  Madrid, 

&c,       <kc,       &c 


NEW    YORK: 

S.  HALLET,  PRINTER  No.  107  FULTON  STREET. 

1864.       , 


Entered  iccording  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1863,  by 

DON  JOSE  FERRER  DE  COUTO, 

"n  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States, 
or  the  Southern  District  of  New  York 


i 
/ 


CO 


LO 
O 


Bancroft  Library 

-3  jTo  ^ 


PEEFACE.* 


On  commencing  the  perusal  of  this  work  the  reader 
should  not  be  startled  if  he  finds  therein  some  doctrines  at 
variance  with  his  own  opinions,  nor  should  he  be  discourag- 
ed at  the  multiplicity  of  details  in  which  it  abounds. 

Any  subject  to  be  properly  and  thoroughly  comprehended 
requires  to  be  studied  with  care  and  deliberation  ;  and 
the  question  discussed  in  these  pages  is  of  such  importance 
that  it  is  well  worthy  of- being  understood.  Let  then  the 
reader  give  his  attention  to  this  work,  and  peruse 
its  pages  in  a  spirit  of  investigation,  and  with  the  impar- 
tiality of  justice.  Let  him  analyze  the  arguments  ;  weigh 
the  reasons  ;  and  compare  with  them  his  own  opinions,. 
pro  and  con.  Let  him  beware  of  being  misled  by  his  own 
passions  and  by  the  sophisms  resulting  from  them,  though 
they  may  appear  in  the  garb  of  truth  ;  and  lastly,  let  him 
subject  his  deductions  to  the  test  of  a  thorough  ratiocina- 
tion, for  by  these  means,  added  to  the  conviction  that 
this  work  originated  in  a  benevolent  desire  to  restore  the 
shattered  interests  of  the  country,  and  to  re-establish 
therein  that  peace  which  is  the  basis  of  prosperity  in  all 

(*)  This  "  Preface"  was  written  before  the  peace  project  had  been 
spoken  of  at  all  as  founded  on  probability.  Circumstances  have  since 
occurred  which  are  favorable  to  that  idea,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  last 
chapter  of  this  work  ;  nevertheless  I  have  decided  not  to  alter  a  single  word 
in  the  Preface,  for  the  reason  that  I  wish  to  retain  integral  the  spontaneous- 
ness  of  its  inspiration  by  a  generous  sentiment,  and,  because,  such  as  it 
is,  it  forms  a  code  of  doctrines  which  is  applicable  to  any  other  nation  un- 
der similar  circumstances. 


enlightened  nations,  he  will  arrive  at  a  discriminating 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  which  may,  perhaps,  be  of 
service  to  him. 

"  Search  the  Scriptures,"  said  our  Saviour  to  those  who 
dared  to  question  the  authority  of  his  divine  mission  on 
earth ;  and  I  will  here  apply  that  injunction  to  human 
writings  also,  for  I  contend  that,  as  society  at  large  is 
regulated  by  the  knowledge  derived  from  such  works,  the 
ignorant  have  no  right  to  avoid  the  perusal  of  what  may 
enlighten  their  understandings  by  combating  their  nar- 
row opinions,  and  the  learned  should  not  contemn  a  work 
which  is  the  result  of  many  years  of  study  and  expe- 
rience. 

This  work  treats  of  the  great  and  momentous  question 
which  has  divided  the  people  of  a  great  nation  into  two 
different  sections  and  arrayed  them  in  arms  one  against 
the  other,  viz  :  the  civil  status  of  the  Negro  in  America, 
a  question  which  for  nearly  a  century  has  kept  the 
minds  of  the  most  humane  and  preeminent  men  in  a 
conrtinual  state  of  excitement.  It  treats  of  Humanity  and 
of  Interest :  of  Order  and  of  Labor  :  of  Slavery,  and  in 
fine,  of  Freedom  in  its  truest  sense. 

/  But  let  not  the  reader  imagine  that  I  intend  merely  to 
indulge  in  fruitless  declamation,  following  the  ordinary 
routine  of  analysis  by  which  every  subject  is  handled  and 
none  decided.  No  !  after  all  that  has  been  written  and 
said  on  these  subjects,  another  book  is  not  needed  for 
such  a  purpose.  My  work  is  not  to  be  the  apotheosis  of 
some  metaphysical  ideas  ;  its  purpose  is  to  expose  a  very 
great  evil  and  to  point  out  the  most  certain  remedy. 

I  have  seen  the  sectarians  of  two  opposite  doctrines  exert 
all  their  energies  and  display  the  most  extraordinary 
activity  in  favor  of  their  respective  causes  :  I  have  listened 
to  their  speeches,  read  their  publications,  studied  their 
works,  and  consulted  their  first  statesmen  personally  and 
by  letter ;  I  have  compared  both  systems  and  weighed 
their  respective  interests  in  the  scales  of  justice.  And  by 
this  attention,  this  spirit  of  investigation  which  gave  the 
first  impulse  to  my  movements  and  encouraged  my  lucu- 
brations, this  eagerness  to  inquire  after  truth  and  to  give 
the  feeble  support  of  my  approval  to  those  measures  which 
should  appear  most  expedient,  I  have  become  convinced 


* 


that,  as  yet,  neither  of  the  belligerents  have  any  idea  what 
these  measures  should  be. 

Each  party,  obstinately  adhering  to  its  original  creed, 
persists  in  supporting  it  and  in  endeavoring  to  force  it 
upon  the  enemy.  "  The  evil  exists "  say  those  of  one 
party  "and  it  must  and  shall  be  eradicated,  even  though 
it  should  be  necessary  to  destroy  the  people  who  uphold  it  " 
"  The  evil  is  an  institution  which  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  our  social  state  "  say  their  opponents,  "  and  we  know  of 
no  moral  sentiment  which  can  rightfully  demand  from 
us  the  sacrifice  of  even  the  smallest  fraction  of  that  necessary 
though  calamitous  institution." 

And  in  the  meanwhile,  in  numberless  places  which 
have  hitherto  been  the  centers  of  industry  and  prosperity, 
the  shriek  of  the  locomotive  has  been  supplanted  by  the 
martial  tones  of  the  war-trumpet  and  the  clashing  of  arms  ; 
while  the  cannon  thunders  and  its  death  dealing  messen- 
gers speed  on  their  horrible  mission  of  havoc  and  desola- 
tion ;  the  fields  with  their  plentiful  fruits  are  inundated 
with  blood  and  magnificent  cities  fall  amid  carnage  and 
ruins. 

And  it  is  tbus  that  an  enlightened  people  consider  their 
interests  !  It  is  thus  that  a  domestic  difficulty  is  being 
settled  by  a  nation  which  has  hitherto  been  distinguished 
for  its  respect  and  observance  of  the  laws  enacted  by  its 
representatives  !  It  is  thus  that  a  question  of  political 
law  is  discussed  by  a  nation  which  has  always  led  the  van 
in  all  the  liberal  ideas  which  belong  to  the  spirit  of  modern 
times,  and  has  been  a  model  and  a  guide  to  all  others ! 
And  the  entire  energies  of  that  nation  are  directed  solely 
to  the  improvement  of  engines  of  war  that  the  contending 
parties  may  the  more  effectually  carry  on  the  work  of 
mutual  destruction  !  And  no  one,  absolutely  no  one, 
thinks  of  seeking  out  a  remedy,  which  should  be  both 
conciliating  and  effectual,  against  that  fearful  scourge 
which  is  never  perpetual  except  among  barbarians  ! 

Oh  !  who  can  tell  what  divine  purpose  is  being  un- 
folded among  the  most  favored  of  Grod's  creatures  by  the 
desolation  which  now  reigns  in  the  Northern  countries  of 
the  New  World.  For  if  we  reflect  on  the  habitual  clear- 
ness of  mind  for  which  these  people  have  been  noted,  if 
we  take  into  consideration  their  wellknown  spirit  of  ag- 
grandizement, (which  they  sometimes  carried  to  a  dangerous 


'8 

extent),  and  the  circumspection  with  which  they  almost 
invariably  proceeded  in  all  home  questions,  to  a  Divine 
purpose  alone  can  we  attribute  the  blindness  which  has 
fallen  on  their  eyes,  the  fury  which  rages  in  their  breasts, 
and  the  blood-thirsty  persistency  which  deprives  them  of 
their  reasoning  faculties. 

But  it  the  downfall  of  this  great,  nation  has  not  been 
decreed  by  the  infinite  wisdom  of  the  Almighty  ;  if  it  be 
still  possible,  by  means  of  a  humane  and  considerate  pol- 
icy, to  settle  this  question  decisively  and  satisfactorily, 
with  due  respect  to  the  interests  of  both  parties,  then 
let  all  who-  are  interested  read  this  work  and  ponder  well 
on  its  contents,  for  perhaps  the  remedy  proposed  in  these 
pages  may  be  found  useful. 

In  this  work  will  be  found  the  history  of  the  negroes  in 
Africa,  before  the  discovery  of  America,  and  from  its 
perusal  the  reader  may  perhaps  be  led  to  justify  the 
practice  of  redeeming  Africans,  and  to  appreciate  the  sen- 
timents of  humanity  in  which  it  originated. 

The  reader  will  find  next  a  full  explanation  of  the 
original  foundation  of  the  trade  in  Africans  :  its  progress 
and  development  :  the  laws  which  related  to  it,  and  the 
alterations  made  in  those  laws.  In  order  that  these 
facts  may  appear  in  their  proper  light  before  the  tribunal 
of  history,  I  take  care  to  demonstrate  the  practical  as  well 
as  legal  state  of  the  negroes,  whether  laborers  or  freemen, 
in  the  Spanish  colonies .;  and  in  support  of  these  state- 
ments I  bring  forward  the  testimony  of  all  the  ancient 
and  modern  laws  which  have  existed,  in  those  colonies, 
and,  it  may  be,  in  others. 

These  details  are  of  the  utmost  importance  as  they  will 
enable  all  persons  to  understand  properly  the  ideas  which 
are  now  being  discussed  on  the  battle  field  ;  for  which 
reason  I  dwell  on  them  with  extreme  minuteness,  and  also 
comment  on  the  effects  which  have  resulted  from  the 
absolute  freedom  of  the  negroes  in  all  the  places  where  it 
has  been  unconditionally  granted. 

And  as  this  subject  has  shaken  the  foundations  and 
threatened  the  very  existence  of  many  countries  in  the 
Western  hemisphere,  it  may  readily  be  supposed  that  I 
shall  not  neglect  to  point  out  the  real  causes  which  have 
advocated  the  emancipation  of  the  enslaved  negroes,  as  well 
as  the  apparent  ones  which  have  effected  this  emancipation 


in  some  places  and  which  are  intended  to  produce  similar 
results  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

If  the  reader  does  not  become  wearied  by  this  time,  and 
if  the  drawing  up  of  this  plan  does  not  appear  to  him 
entirely  unskillful,  then  let  him  continue  to  read  and  he 
will  find  the  treaties  made  with  England  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  redemption,  and  next,  he  will  see  how  these 
treaties  have  been  void  and  of  no  effect  since  they  were  first 
drawn  up. 

The  violation  of  the  respect  due  to  international  rela- 
tions will  pain  the  reader  if  it  does  not  cause  him  to  blush, 
when  he  considers  that  with  regard  to  this  question,  deceit 
and  craftiness  have  taken  the  place  of  truth,  and  an  igno- 
minious law  has  been  substituted  for  the  respect  which  is 
mutually  due  among  all  civilized  nations. 

And  next  will  be  seen  how  insignificant  cruisers,  leagued 
against  the  laws,  can  set  at  defiance  the  fleets  of  the  most 
powerful  nations,  and  traverse  the  vast  expanse  of  the 
ocean  without  any  other  protection  than  their  boldness,  but 
incited  strongly  by  the  profit  held  out  to  them*  by  the 
violation  of  treaties  the  execution  of  which  has  proved 
utterly  impracticable. 

Having  come  to  the  end  of  the  first  part  of  this  work, 
which  contains  the  documentary  history  of  that  institu- 
tion whose  name  is  hateful  to  all  because  it  recalls  to  mind 
the  odious  tyranny  and  the  repugnant  barbarism  which 
reigned  over  the  civilized  nations  before  the  light  of  Chris- 
tianity shone  upon  them,  and  which  prevails  to  the  present 
time  in  the  countries  where  the  negroes  are  redeemed,  the 
reader's  attention  is  particularly  called  to  the  next  subject, 
that  being  the  exposition  of  a  scheme  which  conciliates  the 
extremes  that  have  come  into  collision.  The  plan  I  pro- 
pose destroys  slavery,  in  its  true  acceptation,  and  guaran- 
tees the  organized  labor  of  negroes;  it  satisfies  all  moral 
exigencies  and  serves  to  consolidate  property;  it  opens  the 
gates  of  freedom,  by  redemption,  to  the  victims  of  barba- 
rism, and  introduces  Christian  civilization  into  those  lands 
into  which  it  has  never  penetrated;  it  imposes  silence  on 
the  philanthropic  abolitionists  since  it  deprives  them  of  all 
reason  to  continue  their  clamor;  it  effectually  removes  the 
doubts  and  apprehensions  of  the  wealthy  proprietors,  who 
have,  hitherto,  refused  to  adopt  a  measure  which  is  evi- 


•  10 

dently  so  suitable,  and  morally,  so  "unobjectionable,  merely 
because  they  had  no  practical  knowledge  of  its  workings. 

I  am  well  aware  that  this  project  will  meet  with  opposi- 
tion from  two  contradictory  elements  which  have  ever  ap- 
peared to  combat  all  manner  of  reform  or  progress,  viz.: 
custom  and  doubt}  or,  in  other  words,  prejudice  and  mis- 
trust. 

To  attempt  to  perpetuate  and  legalize  an  order  of  things 
which,  to  all  appearances,  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  civili- 
zation and  to  the  treaties  existing  among  powerful  na- 
tions, at  a  time  when  one  of  these  nations  is  endeavoring 
to  bring  about  the  abolition  and  final  extinction  of  the 
system  of  organized  labor  of  the  negroes  in  America,  is  an 
undertaking  which  certainly  appears  superior  to  the  com- 
prehension of  an  unknown  and  humble  individual. 

And  no  doubt  it  will  be  proclaimed  as  such,  in  scorn, 
by  the  majority  of  my  readers,  who  still  adhere  to 
obsolete  prejudices;  but  there  are  others  who  will  un- 
doubtedly remember  that  the  greatest  events  and  the  most 
important  undertakings  have  originated  with  names  pre- 
viously unknown  to  the  world. 

To  discover  if  a  thing  or  measure  ought  to  be  adopted  it 
is  only  necessary  to  ascertain,  in  the  first  place,  whether  it 
will  prove  useful,  and,  in  the  next  place,  whether  it  is 
just;  and  this  novel  project  which  I  desire  to  introduce  is 
not  only  useful  but  of  absolute  necessity;  and  is  not  only 
remarkable  for  its  justice,  but  without  ,it  a  total  disregard 
in  all  questions  of  social  morality  and  international  res- 
spect  would  prevail. 

The  practice  of  offering  pretexts  for  the  purpose  of  mis- 
construeing  an  agreement,  whenever  owing  to  passing 
events  one  of  the  contracting  parties  wishes  to  cajole  the 
other,  is  nothing  more  than  a  departure  from  truth,  the 
infraction  of  the  laws,  and  the  most  positive  evidence  that 
the  agreement  which  gives  rise  to  such  pretexts  is  not  ba- 
sed upon  justice  and  true  morality. 

And,  in  this  question  of  the  negroes,  who  has  not  ex- 
perienced feelings  of  astonishment,  indignation  and  skep- 
tical contempt  on  seeing  the  inconsistency  with  which  the 
most  accomodating  concessions  were  made  to  certain  inter- 
national demands,  at  the  very  time  when  an  entirely  oppo- 
site course  was  pursued  towards  other  nations/with  re- 
gard to  the  identical  question. 


11 

Even  at  this  time,  when  the  war  caused  by  slavery  in 
the  United  States  has  become  fully  developped,  we  have 
all  seen  in  a  celebrated  document,  two  different  doctrines, 
which,  though  they  are  entirely  incompatible  in  their 
nature,  could  have  emanated  only  from  the  same  principle 
and  the  same  law. 

By  this  "  Proclamation  "  the  institution  of  slavery  was 
declared  totally  abolished,  as  a  punishment  for  rebellion,  in 
such  States  as  should  refuse  to  return  to  the  Union  within 
a  given  time,  while  in  the  others,  it  was  declared  perma- 
nent, as  a  reward  for  their  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  Kepublic. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter,  at  present,  into  an 
analysis  of  these  antithetical  measures  for  the  purpose  oi 
submitting  their  legality  to  the  test  of  the  express  and 
definite  provisions  of  the  laws.  But,  nevertheless,  I  can 
not  refrain  from  pointing  out  their  inconsistencies,  in 
order  to  deduce  therefrom,  as  a  positive  and  undeniable 
inference,  that  the  cause  of  the  abolitionists  is  not  so  in- 
disputably just  as  it  appears,  and  that  the  war  is  not  so 
justifiable  as  might  be  desired  in  view  of  the  principle  in 
which  it  originated. 

And,  notwithstanding,  slavery  (if  the  organized  labor 
of  negroes  can  with  truth  be  named  thus),  ought  not  to 
be  tolerated  among  the  enlightened  nations  of  the  XIX 
century,  it  being  contrary  to  the  Divine  law,  and  also, 
opppsed  to  the  moral  progress  of  mankind.  While,  on  the 
other  hand,  humanity  ought  not  to  consent,  in  this  era  of 
progress,  that  a  degraded  race  should  continue  undisturbed 
in  the  possession  of  vast  regions,  where  their  normal  con- 
dition is  a  state  of  warfare,  and  where  their  victories  are 
celebrated  by  human  sacrifices  and  cannibalism. 

Let  the  reader,  then,  direct  his  attention  to  that  part 
of  my  work  which  treats  of  reformatory  measures,  and 
should  these  appear  useful,  let  them  not  be  considered 
impracticable.  Should  the  obstinacy  of  any  party  prove 
a  stumbling  block  in  his  way,  then  let  him  and  all  others 
who  desire  to  render  a  just  tribute  to  social  morality  and 
to  their  own  interests,  lift  up  their  voices  in  defence  oi 
those  measures. 

'the  experiments  which  have  been  made,  for  the  last 
half  century,  to  suppress  the  redemption  of  negroes  and  to 
destroy  slavery,  have  invariably  produced  results  contrary 

/ 


12 

tc  the  intentions  which  originated  them:  a  disastrous  war 
in  which  all  principles  appear  to  be  under  discussion, 
while  not  one  of  them  has  been  defined  with  sufficient 
clearness:  the  prospect  of  a  total  dissolution  of  that  Be- 
public  which  had  hitherto  adopted  as  the  basis  of  its  po- 
litical existence,  the  famous  motto  E  pluribus  unum:  the 
contradictions  of  the  law,  and  the  degrading  pretexts  which 
reflect  equal  discredit  on  those  who  apply  them  as  on  those 
who  profit  by  them:  all  these  are  appealing  to  the  public 
to  open  their  eyes  and  look  at  things  in  their  proper  light; 
to  fix  their  attention  and  devote  all  their  faculties  to  the 
proper  comprehension  of  the  truth  with  its  highest  at- 
tributes; and  to  subject  all  these  matters  to  a  thorough 
ratiocination  and  draw  thence  the  most  positive  and  un- 
answerable conclusions. 

And  should  the  self  love  or  the  irresistible  vanity  of  the 
extreme  parties  also  rise  in  opposition  against  a  new  code 
formed  on  the  equitable,  conciliating  and  moral  principle 
which  inspires  this  work:  should  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  i.  e.,  the  most  violent  partisans  of  both  schools, 
believe  that  a  just  and  reasonable  adjustment  of  their 
difficulties  is  incompatible  with  the  integrality  of  their 
exclusive  opinions,  let  these  fanatics  divest  themselves  of 
their  passions  and  open  the  history  of  all  human  strife 
and  contentions,  for  therein  they  will  learn  that  the  appeal 
to  arms  has  never  solved  any  social  problem  of  positive 
transcendency  and  permanent  character.  % 

The  arguments  of  force  and  of  arms  may  oppress,  but 
they  cannot  convince,  and  when  they  are  employed  against 
a  common  idea,  universal  sentiment  or  positive  interests, 
{hey  cannot  be  of  long  duration.  Their  supremacy  is  al- 
most invariably  stained  with  blood;  their  fruits  are  de- 
vastation and  misery  as  long  as  they  last,  and  their  ruin- 
ous end  is  an  axiom  which  time  has  demonstrated  and 
made  evident. 

During  the  first  years  of  a  civil  war  it  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  for  eifher  party  to  acquire  a  correct  knowledge 
of  its  own  strength,  and  to  form  an  approximate  estimate 
of  the  definite  results  of  the  strife.  Each  one  considers 
itself  omnipotent,  or  at  least  invincible,  as  it  compares  its 
power  with  that  of  the  opponent;  and,  nevertheless,  when 
years  have  rolled  back  into  the  past,  and  blood  has  flowed 
in  torrents,  and  armies  are  being  anihilated,  and  weariness 


13 

commences  to  appear :  when  all  resources  are  exhausted, 
and  credit  is  lost  through  the  extravagance  and  waste 
which  attend  war,  and  moral  order  is  disturbed  by  the 
same  cause,  and  society  is  losing  its  healthful  customs  and 
adopting  others  which  threaten  to  destroy  all  civil  liberty 
and  material  order  in  the  future,  truth  ever  appears,  with 
sorrowful  and  remorseful  aspect,  amongst  the  shattered 
remains  of  a  ruined  power,  and,  while  fanaticism  flees 
abashed  from  her  presence,  concessions  of  principles  and 
of  interest  are*  made,  which  are  immeasurably  greater  than 
those  which  had  formerly  been  considered  unnecessary 
and  humiliating.  ^ 

This  is  the  history  of  all  litigation,  whether  individual 
or  collective:  political  as  well  as 'civil. 

At  the  commencement  of  a  lawsuit  no  litigant  consents 
to  compromise  his  right  for  half  a  dollar  less  than  the 
amount  of  his  claim  ;  but  in  the  end  there  will  hardly  be 
found  one  who  would  not  rather  have  relinquished  his  right 
were  it  but  to  secure  the  half  of  his  claim  free  of  expense. 

Let  then  all  fanatics  abandon  their  contumacy  and 
sophistry,  and  believe  that  this  question  ought  to  be 
analyzed  and  decided  according  to  the  practical  teachings 
of  pas't  events  and  of  those  which  common  sense  predicts 
for  the  future. 

This  is  no  time  for  conservative  theories  when  a  prudent 
and  equitable  reform  is  demanded  by  all  circumstances : 
by  the  barbarism  of  the  negro  race,  by  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  by  the  morality  of  public  law,  by  the  respect  due 
to  legal  property,  by  the  duty  of  re-establishing  peace 
where  war  now  reigns  with  all  its  horrors,  by  the  civiliza- 
tion which  a  barbarous  race  can  acquire  through  labor  and 
instruction,  and,  finally,  by  all  the  moral  and  material 
interests  of  the  New  World  and  of  Africa. 

The  attention  of  the  intelligent  and  of  the  lovers  of 
justice  is  particularly  called  to  this  work,  in  which  the 
extremes,  against  which  said  reform  is  directed,  are  fully 
expose.d  and  attested  by  historical  and  legal  data.  They 
that  have  ears  let  them  hear, — and  they  that  have  eyes 
let  them  see,  and  read  with  care,  for  the  time  spent  in 
the  perusal  of  these  pages  will  be  profitably  employed  in 
the  interest  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER  L 


The  origin  of  slavery  in  primitive  times. — Its  various  characters 
among  the  heathens. — Its  successive  features  from  the  first  appearance  of 
Christianity  in  the  countries  of  the  negroes,  as  those  countries  were 
successively  discovered. — Causes  for  redeeming*  in  those  countries,  and 
the  reasons  justifying  the  forced  labor  exacted  from  the  redeemed  negroes 
in  America. — The  existence  of  cannibalism  among  the  people  of  that  race 
and  among  the  greater  portion  of  savage  nations  shown  by  abundant 
historical  facts  and  other  proofs  as  regards  Asia,  Africa,  and  America, 
from  the  most  remote  times  down  to  the  present  day. 


The  history  of  slavery  has  its  origin  in  the  history  of 
war,  and  the  history  of  war  in  that  of  the  human  race. 
Fur  men,  ever  envious  of  one  another  and  covetous  of  their 
neighbors'  goods,  have  since  the  days  of  Cain,  by  an 
instinct  inherent  to  our  fallen  nature,  been  bent  upon 
their  own  destruction,  warring  against  each  other  with  all 
the  fury  that  passion  kindles  in  the  humau  heart,  and  kill- 
ing their  captives  either  through  revenge,  or  from  their 
superstitious  belief  in  a  false  religion. 

But  if  the  elements  of  a  primitive  civilization,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  world,  did  not  allay  the  fury  of  the 
combatants  in  war,  it  at  least  suggested  to  them  the 
advantage  of  sparing  the  lives  of  the  conquered,  in  order 
to  benefit  themselves  by  their  labor. 

Thus  the  custom  of  sacrificing  numerous  victims  captur- 
ed after  a  bloody  contest,  was  partially  abolished  in  the 
nations  which  successively  carried  the  banner  of  civiliza- 
tion in  each  epoch  of  the  world  ;  and  from  that  time 
slavery  was  established  and  asserted  as  a  right  by  all 
victors. 


(*)  It  should  be  noticed  that  the  author  uses  the  word  redeem  when 
he  alludes  to  the  purchase  of  negroes  in  Africa,  by  the  Spaniards. 


16 

The  use  which  the  nations  of  antiquity  made  of  this 
right  varied  according  to  the  state  of  their  culture,  or  was 
adapted  to  events  and  circumstances. 

Among  the  Eastern  nations  the  blood  of  these  unhappy 
victims  was  considered  an  acceptable  offering  to  their  lalse 
gods.  The  martial  spirit  of  Rome  invented  amphitheatres 
where  multitudes,  thirsting  for  the  sight  of  bloody  scenes, 
flocked  to  witness,  among  other  sanguinary  exhibitions, 
the  death  struggles  of  a  certain  number  of  captives ; 
whilst  liberal  Greece,  less  given  to  these  cruel  spectacles, 
employed  her  slaves  in  agricultural  labors,  mechanical , 
and  industrial  occupations,  and  oftentimes  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  fine  arts,  acquiring  them  in  trade  in  such 
numbers,  that  in  a  single  province,  Attica,  there  were,  at 
one  time,  no  less  than  four  hundred  thousand  slaves. (1) 

And  when  we  proceed  to  examine  the  nations  which,  at  a 
later  period,  succeeded  those  famous  empires,  though  in  the 
dark  ages,  we  find  proofs  of  their  influence  on  the  customs 
of  subsequent  generations.  Among  the  Scythians,  in 
Italy,  and  also  in  France,  on  the  slopes  of  the  Alps,  pri- 
soners were  enslaved,  sacrificed,  and  sometimes  eaten,  as  is 
testified  to  by  very  respectable  authorities. (2)  In  Spain, 
where  slavery  hact  been  imposed  upon  the  natives  by  the 
Roman  legions,  eloquent  historical  reminiscences  of  which 
are  preserved,  this  principle  was  applied  in  the  war  against 
the  Saracens,  and  was  continued  afterwards  for  a  very 
long  time;  fleets  of  galleys  being  manned  with  the  Moors 
that  were  captured  on  the  coast  of  the  Levant. 

If  such  was  the.  common  practice  among  enlight- 
ened nations,  (where  the  sentiments  of  charity  had  been 
exercised  for  many  centuries,  after  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  in  the  Christian  world,  as  was  the  case  until  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  when  Barbary  slaves  were 
retained  in  the  Spanish  squadron,)  what  would  not  hap- 
pen among  those  savage  nations,  where  not  only  the  light 
of  the  Christian  religion*had  never  shone,  but  where  the 
missionaries  of  civilization  had  never  been  able  to  pene- 
trate a  single  mile  into  the  interior  of  the  coast  where  the 
Negro  traffic  was   carried   on  ?       Alas  !    in   those   lands 

(1)  Aristotle's  Politics,    lib.  ii,  chap.  vii. 

(2)  Pliny  :  Book  vii.  chap.  ii.  Oviedo :  Ristoria  Natural  y  General  de  las 
Indias:  1st  Part.  lib.  v.  chap.  iii. 


17 

where  in  the  darkness  of  the  primitive  rudeness  of  the  world, 
lives  a  degenerate  race,  which  of  itself  is  incapable  of 
the  moral  or  material  improvement  to  which  all  the  other 
races  of  the  human  species  tend,  and  which  opposes  to  the 
social  intercourse  of  civilized  nations  the  insurmountable 
barrier  of  its  ferocity  ;  in  those  lands,  I  repeat,  the  wild 
existence  of  the  individual  is  subject  to  no  other  physi- 
cal or  moral  law,  than  that  of  chance,  if  there  exist  any 
such  laws.  For  as  they  have  not  the  most  remote 
notions  of  the  social  intercourse  by  which  the  other  nations 
of  the  world  are  connected,  and  as,  unlike  other  human 
beings,  the  activity  of  their  minds  and  the  vigor  of  their 
bodies  do  not  incline  them  to  exertions  tending  to  civiliza- 
tion and  improvement,  they  feel  no  propensity  except  for 
war,  a  tendency  common  to  all  barbarians;  and  stimulated 
to  frenzy  by  the  sight  of  blood,  they  are  not  withheld  from 
murdering  their  prisoners  by  the  feeling,  unknown  to  them, 
of  compassion. 

For  this  reason,  no  doubt,  since  it  was  not  the  inherent 
consequences  of  conquest,  all  the  Negroes  who  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Spaniards,  Catalans,  Mayorquinos,  Andalu- 
cians,  and  Portuguese,  who  frequented  the  coasts  of 
Western  Africa  from  the  13th  century  down,(i)  were  in  the 
dark  ages  considered  at  once  as  slaves  and  lawful  prize. 
And  this  proceeding  became  so  frequent,  and  was  so 
thoroughly  sanctioned  by  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  age, 
that  not  only  at  the  court  of  Henry  III.,  that  monarch 
being  in  Seville  at  the  time,  some  magnates  presented 
themselves  parading  their  liveries  on  the  backs  of  their 
bondsmen, (2)  but  many  years  afterwards,  and,  of  course, 
before  the  commencement  of  the  American  slave  trade,  a 
large  number  of  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  possessed  black 
slaves,  especially  in  the  Island  of  Tercera,  in  the  Canaries, 
in  Lisbon,  and  in  Seville. <3) 

(1)  This  date  will  "be  distasteful  to  those  who,  with  their  claims  of 
priority,  deny  what  belongs  to  our  navigators  in  the  discovery  of  those 
African  countries.  But  with  the  testimony  of  Raimundo  Lulio,  whose 
knowledge  and  veracity  are  admitted  by  all  the  world,  we  may  affirm  un- 
hesitatingly what  is  above  stated. 

(2)  Ortiz  de  Zuniga :  Anales  de  Sevilla,  lib.  xii.  Martinez  de  la  Fuente : 
Compendio  de  la  Kistoria  de  la  India,  lib.  i.  chap.  ii. 

(3)  Viera:  Historia  de  las  Islas.  Barros:  Asia  Fortuguesa :  D6cada  pri- 
mera,  lib.  i.  chap.  vi. 


18 

So  indisputably  was  this  the  case,  and  so  habitually  was 
si  aver  y  considered  by  the  whites  as  the  natural  condition  of 
the  Negro,  that  in  1505,  seventeen  black  slaves  were  taken 
to  Espanola  (now  Santo  Domingo)  by  an  expedition  of 
Spanish  colonists,  and  five  years  afterwards,  one  hundred 
more  were  conveyed  to  that  island  in  the  same  capa- 
city ;  and  be  it  understood  that  at  that  time,  no  arrange- 
ment whatever  had  been  made  for  employing  them  in^the 
cultivation  of  the  colonial  soil,  nor  had  any  idea  been 
formed  as  to  the  practicability  of  any  such  arrangement. 
This  auxiliary  force  was  introduced  into  the  Spanish  island 
under  no  legal  authority,  although  it  is  stated  that  for 
every  Negro  composing  the  second  expedition  of  1510  to 
which  I  allude,  two  ducats  were  exacted  from  the  owner 
as  a  tax  or  import  duty  on  each  slave. (1) 

Father  Las  Casas, — better  known  for  his  hatred  of  the 
Spaniards  than  for  his  real  sympathy  for  the  Indians — 
commenting  with  bitter  censure  on  the  fact  of  Columbus 
having  enslaved  some  of  them  and  brought  them  to 
Europe,  to  be  sold,  on  his  return  from  his  first  voyage, 
which  Indians,  be  it  remembered,  were  set  free  by  the 
magnanimous  Queen  Isabel  I — exclaimed  in  one  of  his 
philanthropic  bursts  of  passion  : — "  As  if  the  Indians 
were  Africans  !"(2) 

This  exclamation  of  Las  Casas,  coupled  with  his  strange 
morality  in  relation  to  the  slavery  of  the  Indians,  -shows 
the  predominant  conviction  of  the  times  in  regard  to  the 
justice  with  which  forced  servitude  was  imposed  on  the 
Negroes. 

Besides,  it  is  known  that  in  "Aristotle's  Politics"  the 
enslavement  of  the  savage  by  enlightened  nations,  is  set 
down  as  a  civilizing,  equitable  principle  of  sound  moral- 
ity,(3)  and  it  is  known,  also,  that  in  the  time  to  which  I 

(1)  La  Sagra. — Historia  Politica. — Appendix  No.  18. 

(2)  Navarrete. —  Viajes  y  Descubrimientos,  &c.  Vol.  i.  Introduction, 
paragraph  57 ;  and  vol.  ii.  page  112,  145  &  176. 

(3)  Oviedo,  chaps,  i.  v.  and  vii.,  commenting  on  these  passages  of  Aris- 
totle, in  his  Historia  Natural  y  General  de  las  Indias,  says  :  M  It  would 
seem  as  though  they  wished  to  have  it  understood  that  the  barbarians  are 
by  nature  slaves  of  rational  men  ;  and  as  war  can  be  made  against  beasts, 
so  also  against  those  men  who  by  nature  are  to  be  subjected." 

As  Columbus  agreed  to  a  similar  philosophy,  in  which  he  was  so  well 
versed,  he  hesitated  not  to  bring  slaves  to  Spain,  to  the  number  of  not  less 
than  three  hundred  Indians  from  the  West  Indiea     Yhen  he  returned  from 


19 

allude,  and  more  particularly  among  the  nations  of  the 
Latin  race,  it  was  a  very  common  custom  to  study  the 
philosophers  of  antiquity,  and,  above  all,  Aristotle,  on  ac- 
count of  the  contrast  between  his  philosophy  and  that  of 
Plato,  in  deducing  relative  truths,  as  well  as  for  his  indis- 
putable merit  and  the  superiority  of  his  reasoning;  there- 
fore, the  proceedings  of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  in 
relation  to  enslaving  the  savages  of  Western  Africa,  must 
have  been  considered  the  more  natural  and  justifiable, 
since  the  ferocity  of  those  people  in  all  the  acts  of  their 
lives  counselled  the  measure  for  the  sake  of  humanity. 

I  must  here  observe,  in  order  that  it  may  be  borne  in 
mind  by  those  who  may  make  remarks  either  in  public  or 
in  private  respecting  the  contents  of  this  work,  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  African  negroes,  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  down  to  the  present  day,  in  the  most  civilized 
districts,  (if  such  a  state  of  things  may  be  called  civiliza- 
tion,) have  lived  devouring  one  another  in  bloody,  desola- 
ting wars,  as  have  also  the  Indians  of  the  new  world,  with 
the  difference,  however,  between  the  two  regions,  that 
while  in  America  (in  Mexico  for  example)  before  its  dis- 
covery by  us,  a  native  emperor  never  desired  to  subject  or 
reduce  to  his  authority,  as  he  could  have  done,  the  hostile 
nations  which  surrounded  the  famous  empire  of  Anahuac, 
in  order  that  he  might  always  have  enemies  at  hand  to 
fight  with,  and  victims  to  immolate  in  the  Teocalis,  the 
filthy  temples  of  their  bloody  gods;(1)  so  the  negroes  of 

his  first  voyage  ;  which  slaves,  after  being  sold  by  him  in  the  Peninsula, 
were  ordered  to  be  set  at  liberty  by  her  Catholic  Majesty  (Pizarro  y 
Orellana:  Varones  ilustres,  cap.  vi.  &c.)  And  our  D.  Alonzo  de  Ercilla, 
as  wise  as  he  was  just  in  the  practice  of  the  soundest  morality,  not  only  by 
what  is  gathered  from  his  glorious  poem,  but  also  from  what  is  known  of 
his  public  life,  so  agrees  with  what  is  above  stated  respecting  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  savages  in  war,  that  he  expresses  himself  thus  in  one  of  his 
outbursts  of  sincerity : 

In  legitimate  warfare,  at  will 

The  victor,  (though  fought  not  to  be), 
Is  allowed  to  wound,  capture  and  kill, 

And  make  bondsmen  and  slaves  of  the  free. 
For  he  who  is  Master,  besides 

Of  the  lives  he  has  fought  for  and  won, 
May  dispose  of  their  persons  likewise, 

Sure  that  none  will  condemn  what  he's  done. 

Araucana,  canto  xxxvii. 

(1)  "  The  barbarous  custom  of  the  kings  of  Mexico  is  not  to  be  forgot- 
ten ;  after  being  elected,  and  before  their  coronation,  they  went  out  to 


20 

those  miserable  countries,  where  even  now  the  traffic  in 
their  bodies  and  the  ransom  of  their  souls  is  not  entirely- 
suppressed,  waged  war  solely  for  the  object  of  destroying 
and  eating  each  other  like  cannibals,  as  many  of  them  are. 

To  demonstrate  the  facts  which  are  here  stated,  I  have 
at  hand  more  than  sufficient  data,  though  not  somany  res- 
pecting Africa  as  relating  to  America,  owing  to  the  more 
particular  attention  I  have  paid  to  the  study  of  the  new 
world  than  to  that  of  the  former  continent.  Nevertheless, 
treating  of  other  matters  connected  with  the  glories  of 
Spain  and  the  history  of  its  discoveries  and  conquests,  I 
have  consulted  many  Portuguese  historians,  and  not  a  few 
celebrated  French,  Dutch  and  English  travellers,  as  well  as 
some  from  other  parts,  and  the  result  has  been  that  they  all 
agree  with  what  I  have  said  about  the  negro,  namely,  that 
the  more  warlike  people  of  the  western  coast,  and  of  the 
southwest  down  to  Asia,  lived  in  continued  exterminating 
wars,  and  indulged  in  hideous  feasts  on  the  flesh  of  their 
prisoners.  Lest  from  the  omission  of  quotations  it  may  be 
thought  that  the  truths  I  state  are  interested  inventions 
of  mine,  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  reliable  authority  of  Juan 
de  Barros,  Faria  y  Sousa,  Juan  Felix  Pereyra,  Fernan 
Lopez,  Kuiz  de  Pina,  Damian  Goes,  and  my  illustri- 
ous and  distinguished  ancestor,  Diego  de  Couto,  as  to  the 
best  national  historians ;  and  also  to  Mungo  Park, 
Bontekoe,  Bernier,  Maire,  Nicoli,  Koberts,  Cadamosto, 
Pyzard  and  de  la  Harpe,  in  the  narratives  of  their  differ- 
ent voyages. 

All  of  whom  agree  that  there  were  among  the  Africans 
and  Ethiopians  many  nations  of  cannibals;  so  that  one 
might  have  said  of  them  with  much  justice  what  Pedro 
Martir  said  of  the  Indians  of  the  New  World,  when  he 
learned  that  the  feasts  of  cannibalism  were  in  use  there", 
viz.,  "  the  stories  of  Lestrigon  and  Polyphemus,  who  fed 
upon  human  flesh,  are  no  longer  doubtful.     Head!  but  let 

fight  with  some  hostile  province,  not  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  feats  of 
valor  in  the  presence  of  their  vassals,  but  to  secure  a  large  number  of  pri- 
soners in  battle  to  be  sacrificed  in  their  honor  on  the  occasion  of  the  cer- 
emony. So  truly  was  this  the  case,  that  Motezuma  himself  confessed  to 
Hernan  Cortes,  that  he  had  abstained  from  subjugating  the  independent 
provinces  of  Mechoacan,  Tlascala  and  Teapeaca,  in  order  to  have  some 
place  to  wage  war  in  whenever  there  should  be  a  necessity  for  victims  at 
a  new  election  and  coronation." — Acosia,  Histories,  Natural,  lib.  vii.,  chap. 
xxi. 


21 

not  your  hair  stand  on  end  with  horror !"(1)  And  let  it 
not  be  imagined  that  these  assertions  of  the  fact,  that  In- 
dians and  Africans  in  their  respective  countries  sacrifice 
and  eat  their  own  species,  are  the  exaggerated  fancies  of  tra- 
velers who  impose  upon  the  credulity  of  the  vulgar;  for 
though  it  be  true  that  many  narrators  of  protracted  voyages 
and  remote  customs  invent  and  state  what  suits  their  pur- 
poses without  regard  to  the  truth  essential  to  history,  it  is 
not  the  less  certain  that  not  only  those  who  have  written 
accounts  of  travels,  but  also  the  gravest  and  most  truthful 
historians  coincide  on  this  subject;  and  from  these  writers 
I  will  quote  some  passages  relating  to  America,  to  insure 
a  better  understanding  of  what  I  wish  to  say.(2) 

Dr.  Chanca,  the  companion  of  Columbus  on  his  second 
voyage,  I  know  not  whether  by  appointment  of  the  corpo- 
ration of  Seville,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  account  of 
his  observations,  or  of  his  own  free  will,  wrote  a  letter  to 
said  corporation,  in  which,  describing  his  arrival  and  landing 
in  the  island  of  Guadalupe,  he  makes  the  following  state- 
ment: "  The  men  they  (the  natives  of  the  island)  cap- 
ture, if  alive,  are  taken  to  their  houses  to  be  butchered, 
and  those  who  are  dead,  they  eat.  They  say  that  the  flesh 
of  man  is  so  good  that  there  is  nothing  equal  to  it  in  the 
world;  and  so  it  would  seem,  for  from  the  bones  which  we 
found  in  these  houses,  everything  that  was  eatable  had 
been  gnawed  off,  so  nothing  remained  on  them  but  what 
from  its  toughness  could  not  be  eaten.  The  neck  of  a  man 
in  process  of  being  cooked  was  found  in  one  of  their 
houses."(3) 


(1)  Letter  to  Pomponio  Laetus.  Navarrete  :  Coleccion  de  Viajes  y  clescuhri- 
mientos.  &c,  tomo.  i. 

(2)  Since  I  have  already  quoted  from  La  Araucana,  on  account  of  the 
profound  learning  it  contains,  I  will  not  deprive  my  readers  of  the  follow- 
ing lines  with  which  their  author  corroborates,  in  anticipation,  the  narra- 
tives written  by  the  historians  of  the  West  Indies,  even  when  they  appear- 
ed most  extravagant : 

Travelers  see  many  things  on  their  way, 

Which  as  fables  are  received, 
And  the  greater  the  marvel,  the  less  that  they  say, 

The  more  they'll  be  believed. 
And  although  the  doubtful  'tis  as  well  to  suppress, 

So  that  people  won't  say  I  lie, 
I'll  tell  them  true,  I  found  truth  on  the  ground, 

Though  'tis  thought  it  has  flown  to  the  sky. 

Canto  xxxvi. 

(3)  Navarrete —  Viajes  y  descubrimientos,  tomo  i. 


22 

This  testimony,  from  so  reliable  and  competent  an  au- 
thority, who  was  an  eye  witness,  and  not  merely  a  narrator 
from  hearsay,  ought  almost  to  suffice  to  confirm  the  fact, 
(at  least  in  the  present  work,  in  which  this  question  ap- 
pears to  be  of  secondary  consideration),  of  the  existence  of 
cannibalism  among  the  Indians. 

Nevertheless,  when  I  see  the  odium  of  the  slave  trade 
charged  against  us,  and  call  to  mind  the  innumerable  in- 
sults which  all  nations,  and  especially  the  English,  have  in- 
flicted upon  our  honor  respecting  the  discovery,  conquest 
and  government  of  the  West  Indies,  apostrophizing  us  as 
►cowards  and  the  oppressors  of  a  simple,  pusillanimous  and 
innocent  people,  I  cannot  help  giving  some  latitude  to  the 
refutation  of  such  deniable  denunciations,  since  I  have 
abundant  data  for  the  purpose.  With  the  help  of  these 
I  will  not  only  establish  a  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  the 
slavery  of  savage  people,  according  to  ancient  philosophy  ; 
but  will  also  endeavor  to  dispel,  by  a  chain  of  rigorous 
consequences,  the  opinions  which  have  been  gratuitously 
advanced,  and  which  have  attributed  to  a  natural  inhu- 
manity of  Spaniards,  what  is  founded  only  in  the  bad  faith 
or  the  imagination  of  our  rivals. 

In  the  Historia  natural  y  general  de  las  Indias  written 
by  G-onzalo  Fernandez  de  Oviedo,  who  of  all  the  contem- 
porary writers  of  those  facts,  is  perhaps,  the  most  truthful 
and  the  most  reliable,  from  his  official  position  and  supe- 
rior knowledge, (1)  there  are  many  passages  relating  to  can- 
nibals and  many  more  that  tell  of  bloody  human  sacrifices. 
And  as  it  would  be  tedious  to  recount  them  all,  I  will  give 
at  random  those  which  will  suffice  to  prove  the  truth  of 
my  statements,  as  follows  : 

"There  never  was  a  war,"  (says  the  writer),  "among 
the  Indians  of  this  Island  (Santo  Domingo),  but  for  one  of 
three  causes  ;  either  for  contested  boundaries  and  jurisdic- 
tion, or  about  the  fisheries,  or  when  cannibal  Indians  from 
other  Islands  came  to  rob."(2) 

To  this  he  adds  in  the  same  chapter  and  passage,  that 

(1)  He  was  chronicler  of  the  Indies  by  royal  letters  patent:  he  having 
been  Inspector  of  the  smelting  of  Gold  in  Darien ;  Governor  of  the  fortress 
of  St.  Domingo ;  (at  that  time  the  head  of  our  colonization  in  the  New 
World),  Governor  and  Captain  General  elect  of  the  Province  of  Cartha- 
gena  in  the  Indies,  &c,  &c,  &c. 

(2)  Part  I.,  Book  III.,  Chapter  VI. 


23 

s 

the  Islands  of  the  cannibals  were  Boriqnen  (now  Porto 
Rico),  Guadalupe,  Dominica,  Matinino  and  Cibugueyra, 
therefore  it  appears  that  nothing  further  is  needed  to  show 
that  my  testimony  is  supported  by  that  of  so  great  an 
authority  as  Oviedo.  And  as  to  the  sacrifices,  chapters 
III  of  book  V,  and  IX  of  book  VI  may  be  consulted  ; 
and  besides,  the  preface  of  book  XII  wherein  he  thus 
depicts  the  Indians  in  general :  "  Because  the  people  of 
these  Indies,  although  rational  and  of  the  same  origin  as 
the  eight  persons  within  the  holy  Ark  and  in  company 
with  Noah,  have  been  made  irrational  and  beastly  by 
their  idolatry,  sacrifices  and  infernal  ceremonies,  the 
devil  has  had  full  possession  of  their  souls  for  centuries/' 

Oviedo  did  not  exaggerate  on  this  point,  nor  were  the 
Spaniards  tyrants,  but,  on  the  contraiy,  they  were  com- 
mendable in  reforming  the  customs  of  the  Indians,  whether 
with  their  consent  or  by  constraint,  forming  new  settle- 
men  ts  of  those  who  led  a  roving  life  about  the  country, 
and  making  ordinances  of  humane  policy  wherever  they 
took  possession.  And  to  show  with  what  reason  I  assert 
this  opinion,  let  us  hear  the  testimony  of  Father  Jos6  de 
Acosta,  whose  his  torical  truthfulness  admits  of  no  contra- 
diction, seeing  that  his  work  is  the  result  of  a  legal  in- 
vestigation made  at  that  time  in  those  places  by  order  of 
the  king;  speaking  of  the  sacrifices  which  were  executed 
in  Mexico,  he  describes  them  as  follows: 

"  After  the  sacrificers  were  arranged  in  order,  all  the 
prisoners  of  war,  who  were  to  be  slaughtered  in  this  festi- 
val, were  brought  forth  well  guarded,  entirely  naked,  and 
made  to  ascend  in  single  file  the  long  series  of  steps  which 
lead  to  the  place  where  six  priests  awaited  them  ;  as  each 
one  arrived  in  turn,  four  sacrificers  seized  him,  each  by 
one  limb,  and  threw  him  on  his  back  on  a  sharp-pointed 
stone,  where  the  fifth  of  these  ministers  put  a  halter 
around  his  neck,  and  the  sixth  (the  High  Priest)  with 
a  long  knife  ripped  open  his  breast  with  astonishing 
dexterity,  tearing  out  the  heart  with  his  hands,  and,  while 
it  was  yet  reeking  with  animal  heat,  held  it  up  to  the  Sun, 
to  which  he  offered  that  smoke  and  heat,  and  then  turn- 
ing to  the  idol,  cast  it  at  his  face,  after  which  the  body  of 
the  victim  was  tossed  down  the  steps  of  the  temple."  In 
this  manner  all  the  victims  were  disposed  of  one  by  one, 
and  their  bodies  being   handed  over  to  their   respective 


24 

owners,  by  whom  they  had  been  captured,  were  distribut- 
ed among  their  friends  and  companions,  and  devoured  by 
all  wi-th  great  solemnity;  however  small  the  number  of 
victims  might  be,  there  never  was  less  than  forty  or  fifty, 
for  they  were  very  expert  in  taking  captives." (]) 

These  same  accounts,  in  different  words  and  style,  were 
given  before,  and  have  been  given  since  as  regards  Mexico, 
by  Hernan  Cortes,  in  his  famous  letters  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  by  Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo,  Lopez  de  Goma- 
ra,  Antonio  de  Herrera,  D.  Antonio  de  Solis,  and  by  many 
others  whom  I  cannot  now  recall  to  mind. 

But  Mexico  was  not  the  only  part  in  the  Kew  World 
where  such  abominations  were  practised  under  the  influ- 
ence of  a  civilization  which  partook  of  all  the  iniquities  of 
the  most  odious  heathenism;  for  the  same  author,  speaking 
of  the  Incas  of  Peru,  says: 

t  "  This  Guaynacopa  was  worshipped  as  God  by  his  sub- 
jects during  his  life — a  fact  affirmed  by  the  oldest  inhabi- 
tants as  having  never  taken  place  with  his  predecessors. 
When  he  died,  one  thousand  persons  of  his  household 
were  killed,  that  they  might  go  to  serve  him  m  the  other 
world;  and  such  was  their  willingness  to  die,  in  order  to 
remain  in  his  service,  that  many  who  were  not  among  the 
appointed,  offered  themselves  for  that  purpose."(2) 

And  in  another  passage  which  precedes  the  foregoing 
description  he  expresses  himself  in  these  terms: 

"  Besides  this,  it  was  customary  in  Peru  to  sacrifice 
children  of  from  four  to  six  and  ten  years  of  age ;  chiefly  in 
matters  which  concerned  the  Inca;  if  he  were  sick,  that  he 
might  recover  his  health,  and  when  he  was  going  to  war, 
that  he  might  gain  the  victory.  And  when  the  Tassel, 
which  was  the  insignia  of  kings  as  the  sceptre  or  the  crown 
is  with  us,  was  conferred  on  the  new  Inca-,  two  hundred 
children,  of  from  four  to  ten  years  of  age,  were  sacri- 
ficed— a  cruel  and  inhuman  spectacle!  The  manner  of 
sacrificing  these  was  by  strangulation,  and  they  were  then 
buried  with  some  food,  certain  ceremonies  being  performed 
on  the  occasion;  at  other  times  they  beheaded  the  vic- 
tims, and  smeared  themselves  from  ear  to  ear  with  the 
blood.     They  also  sacrificed  the  virgins  who  were  brought 

(1)  Acosta :  Historia  Moral  y  Natural  de  Indias,  lib.  v.,  cap.  xx. 

(2)  Acosta:  Historia  Moral y  Natural  de  Indias,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  xxii. 


25 

to  the  Inca  from  the  monas tries  of  which  I  have  already 
spoken.  A  great  and  general  superstition  existed  among 
them,  which  was,  that  when  an  Indian  of  either  high  or 
low  degree  was  sick,  and  his  disease  was  pronounced  fatal 
by  the  augur,  they  sacrificed  his  son  to  the  Sun  or  to  the 
Viracocha  (God),  asking  him  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
offering,  and  not  to  require  the  death  of  the  father. (1) 

The  reports  of  these  murders  and  abominable  sacrifices, 
as  well  as  the  conviction  that  cannibalism  existed  among 
those  people,  became  so  public  and  universal,  that  even 
the  poets,  with  their  fanciful  conceptions,  were  considered 
truthful  historians,  so  far  as  this  subject  was  con- 
cerned. In  fact,  those  who  distinguished  themselves  the 
most  in  the  poetic  line,  in  writing  on  the  subject  of  the 
Indies,  viz.:  Juan  de  Castellanos,  in  his  Elegias  de  Varo- 
nes  ilustres,  and  Don  Alonso  Ercilla,  in  La  Araucana, 
wrote  history  rather  than  fiction,  as  has  been  proved  by 
comparison  of  their  works  with  those  of  the  most  weighty 
authors,  and  by  the  assurances  which  both  authors  gave 
in  advance,  and  repeated  from  time  to  time,  that  they 
would  not  indulge  in  false  inventions. 

In  Porto  Rico,  says  Castellanos,  the  war  waged  by  the 
Spaniards  against  the  natives  originated  in  the  diabolical 
intentions  of  the  latter  to  seize  a  youth  from  Seville, 
named  Juan  Juarez,  for  the  purpose,  of  course,  of  eating 
him — a  game  of  ball  being  intended  to  decide  to  whose  lot 
he  should  fall.(2) 

Narrating  afterwards  the  expedition  of  Jorge  Espina, 
Governor  of  Venezuela,  between  the  rivers  Maranon  and 
Orinoco,  he  treats  of  a  certain  nation  of  Indians,  called, 
Choques,  of  whom  he  speaks  as  follows: 

For  besides  devouring  mankind, 

A  horror  in  which  they  delight, 
N  In  all  the  serpents  they  find, 

They  indulge  to  their  full  appetite. 
Their  children  and  kindred  they  eat; 

Their  bodies  are  tombs  for  the  dead ; 
They  eat  the  worms  under  their  feet, 

And  even  the  hairs  off  their  head."<3> 

With  a  better  intonation  and  a  graver  style  as  became 

(1)  Acosta :  Historia  Moral  y  Natural  de  Indias,  lib.  v.,  cap.  xix. 

(2)  Part  First :  Elegia,  vi.,  canto  i. 

(3)  Segunda  Parte :  Elegia  ii.,  canto  ii. 


26 

him  who  used  it,  Don  Alonso  de  Ercilla,  on  describing  a 
great  sterility  which  the  lands  of  Arauco  suffered  in  the 
year  1554,  treats  of  the  same  criminal  customs  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner: 

I  made  a  great  inquiry, 

Exact  within  the  place ; 
For  human  flesh  was  ate,  you  see ; 

(Oh  !  cruel,  frightful  case) ; 
And  brothers  brothers  ate ; 

The  thing  may  look  false  on  its  face — 
But  a  mother  there  was,  who  devouring  her  son, 

To  her  entrails  returned,  from  whence  he  had  sprung.U) 

It  seems  to  me,  nevertheless,  that  Ercilla  is  mis- 
taken in  supposing  that  this  enormous  crime  was 
then  practised  for  the  first  time,  for  it  appears  impos- 
sible that  a  mother  would  eat  her  own  child  as  he 
says  in  the  last  verse,  if  the  custom  had  not  been  well 
established  before.  I  could  quote  many  similar  passages 
of  the  history  of  the  Indies  from  various  authors  who  have 
been  in  those  parts  and  who  related  what  they  had  seen, 
adding,  that  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Indians  as  to  the 
property  of  individuals  caused  them  to  commit  without 
any  compunction,  the  most  cruel  act  as  though  it  was  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world.  And  this  is  confirmed 
in  other  verses  of  Juan  de  Castellanos,  who  does  not  allow 
me  to  be  as  sparing  in  my  quotations  as  I  would  wish  to 
be,  owing  to  his  witty  and  very  natural  eloquence  in  the 
present  case,  saying : — 

A  certain  chief  of  this  tribe,  was 
In  strong  terms  well  reproved, 
Because  with  his  voracious  jaws, 
He,  his  good  subjects  chewed. — 
Quoth  he:  " I eat  them  up  because 
They'' re  mine  ^  those  of  another  brood 
I  care  not  for :"  Yet,  I  believe  such  was 
His  emendation,  he  ne'er  again  did  have 
The  chance  of  dining  off  his  nation,  (i* 

The  author  would  seem,  in  the  coupling  of  these  verses, 
to  convey  the  idea  that  the  Spaniards  killed  the  Indian  ; 
which,  if  it  so  happened,  will  not  have  failed  to  form  an 
important  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  in  the  indictment 
found  against  us  by  foreign  nations  for  our  barbarous 
inhumanity.     And  it  must  be  observed,  since  we  touch 

(1)  La  Araucana,  canto  ix. 

(2)  Elegia  £  Benalcaza :  canto  viii. 


27 

upon  this  point,  not  at  random  as  some  of  our  readers 
might  imagine,  considering  the  task  as  a  digression ;  that 
although  in  the  first  voyages  of  our  celebrated  discoverers 
of  the  New  World,  no  foreigners,  nor  even  the  subjects  of 
the  crown  of  Aragon,  were  permitted  to  go  there ;  after- 
wards by  virtue  of  royal  letters  patent  and  under  the  pro- 
tection of  our  rights  and  our  honor,  the  privilege  was  ex- 
tended to  the  people  of  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  and  of 
course,  turned  to  advantage  by  the  worst  part  of  each 
nation.  Oviedo  seeing  this,  and  jealous  of  our  reputation 
which  already  began  to  be  tarnished  by  those  very  persons, 
perhaps,  who  disgraced  it  by  their  acts,  said  on  this 
account : — 

"  And  because  in  the  progress  of  these  histories  and  of 
these  new  discoveries  some  mutinies  and  riots  and  ugly 
deeds  have  occurred,  and  may  again  take  place,  mixed  up 
with  treason  and  disloyalty  and  want  of  constancy  on  the 
part  of  some  men  who  have  come  hither :  believe  not, 
reader,  that  Spaniards  only  have  committed  all  these 
offences,  for  of  all  the  languages  spoken  in  Christendom 
there  is  none  which  is  not  represented  here :  here  are  found 
natives  of  Italy  as  well  as  of  Germany,  of  Scotland  and 
England,  and  also  Frenchmen,  Hungarians,  Poles,  Greeks, 
Portuguese,  and  people  of  all  the  nations  in  Asia,  of 
Africa  and  of  Europe  :  some  of  whom,  not  having  come 
with  the  intention  of  converting  the  Indians  nor  of  popu- 
lating the  country  and  remaining  in  it  for  any  greater 
length  of  time  than  that  required  for  the  acquisition  of 
gold  and  the  accumulating  of  wealth  in  every  possible 
manner,  put  aside  shame,  conscience  and  truth,  apply 
themselves  to  every  kind  of  fraud  and  homicide,  and  com- 
mit innumerable  depravities."(2) 

After  what  has  been  said  here  in  relation  to  America, 
which  is  calculated  to  show,  in  comparatively  recent  times, 
the  existence  of  cannibal  nations,  and  also  the  practice^of 
warfare  and  of  human  sacrifices  as  common  institutions ; 
aside  of  what  may  justify  the  conduct  of  the  Spaniards  in 
their  proceedings  towards  these  barbarous  nations  ;  it 
would  not  be  difficult  for  me  to  show  the  resemblance 
which  exists  between  the  mode  of  life  of  the  Indians,  and 

(2)  Historia  Natural  de  las  India*  :  lib.  xxiv.  capftulo  iv. 


28 

that  of  the  African  Negroes,  which  is  characterized  by  still 
greater  barbarism  and  cruelty. 

I  have  before  me  various  accounts  of  travelers,  whose 
bloody  and  immoral  pages  fill  the  reader  with  horror  and 
disgust. 

"  Voracity"  says  one  of  these  writers,  "  is  the  ruling 
passion  of  the  Negroes  in  their  savage  state  :  they  subsist 
upon  theft ;  they  will  steal  now  a  chicken,  now  a  cat  or  a 
dog,  but  delight  above  all,  in  rats,  of  which  they  are  pas- 
sionately fond  ;  their  fires  are  never  idle  ;  and  whenever 
they  find  any  of  these  animals  either  in  the  woods  or  in 
the  road,  not  only  dead,  but  even  in  a  state  of  complete 
putrefaction,  they  eat  them  without  the  least  reluctance. 
There  are  Negroes  of  the  race  of  Bibis  who,  in  the  Colonies 
have  seized  children  of  four  years  of  age,  for  the  purpose 
of  feasting  their  barbarous  stomachs,  for,  as  they  them- 
selves confess,  the  most  delicious  morsel  for  a  Bibi  is  the 
well-roasted  flesh  of  a  child  served  up  hot.  They  are 
competent  judges  on  this  matter,  for  in  the  midst  of  the 
continual  wars  which  desolate  their  country,  they  have 
innumerable  occasions  to  feast  upon  this  class  of  food,  as 
they  almost  always  eat  their  prisoners.  With  the  object 
of  being  able  to  devour  their  captives  with  greater  ease, 
the  Bibis  and  the  Montcliiavas  file  their  incisors  till  they 
form  sharp  points  ;  in  both  of  these  races  to  keep  the  teeth 
entirely  black  is  considered  the  greatest  type  of  perfect 
beauty,  and  they  attain  this  end  by  burning  them  with 
lime  and  staining  them  with  the  shells  of  wild  nuts."(1) 

On  the  coast  of  Guinea  there  is  also  a  nation  of  savasres 
called  the  Yolofs,  whose  native  ferocity  is  not  less  atro- 
cious than  that  of  the  nations  already  named.  Owing  to 
their  custom  of  eating  their  prisoners,  they  naturally 
imagine  that  such  also  is  to  be  their  lot  when  they  are  sold 
to  the  traders  ;  and  if  they  do  not  accomplish  a  successful 
r#yolt  on  the  passage,  as  has  often  happened  with  the 
Negroes  from  the  Gfulf  of  Berrin  or  the  Kalabars,  they 
generally  commit  suicide  by  hanging  themselves  as  soon 
as  they  have  entered  on  their  servitude  in  the  colonies. 

The    Congos    and    Carabalis   have   the   reputation   in 

(1)  This  narrative,  which  was  afterwards  transferred  almost  entire  to  a 
small  treatise  published  anonymously  subsequently  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  French  Colonies,  belongs  to  the  collection  of  voyages  of  La 
Harpe. 


29 

Cuba,  among  the  Negroes  of  milder  customs,  of  being 
anthropophagi,  or  as  they  more  naturally  say,  man-eaters. 

I  questioned  one  of  these  miserable  beings  myself,  in 
Havana,  enquiring  if  it  were  true  that  they  eat  one  ano- 
ther when  at  war,  and  on  his  answering  me  affirmatively 
with  blood-shot  eyes,,  as  though  he  were  on  the  point  of 
luxuriating  once  more  in  so  horrible  a  feast,  I  must  con- 
fess I  began  to  doubt  the  fact  of  our  springing  from  the 
same  origin. 

Some  philanthropists  of  little  reflection  and  uninformed 
of  the  customs  of  savage  nations,  have  supposed  that  the 
traffic  which  is  still  carried  on  with  the  Negroes  in  their 
respective  countries  is  what  keeps  them  in  a  permanent 
state  of  war.  I  confess  that  at  one  time  I  also  held  this 
opinion,  though  I  have  never  expressed  it  in  writing ;  but 
while  studying  this  question  of  slavery  with  the  most  fer- 
vent desire  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  I  have  read  all  the 
authors  who  have  written  with  some  truth  on  the  customs 
of  said  nations,  and  have  found  that  they  all  agreed  in 
representing  the  Negroes  in  a  permanent  state  of  warfare, 
long  before  the  traffic  was  commenced  or  thought  of. 

Neither  can  it  be  doubted  that  they  were  sacrificers  of 
human  victims,  although,  owing  to  their  not  having  as 
clear  a  notion  of  the  Divinity  and  of  a  future  life  as  the 
Indians  had,  their  sacrifices  were  less  frequent,  and  were 
not  celebrated  with  the  same  solemnities. 

Now  at  this  very  time,  in  this  enlightened  age  and 
under  the  immediate  vigilance  of  English  philanthropists, 
who  with  the  greatest  coolness  have  announced  the  news  ; 
scenes  of  the  most  revolting  and  horrifying  character  are 
about  to  take  place  in  the  Western  Coast  of  Africa.  Not 
to  detract  from  the  character  of  these  scenes,  as  they  have 
been  described,  I  will  quote  a  paragraph  from  the  West 
African  Herald,  (an  English  paper,  of  course)  which 
reads  as  follows : — 

"His  majesty  Badahung,  King  of  Dahomey,  is  preparing 
to  celebrate  a  grand  festivity  in  honor  of  Gezo,  his  prede- 
cessor. Desirous  of  eclipsing  all  previous  monarchs  in  the 
splendor  of  the  ceremonies  with  which  this  object  is  to 
be  performed,  the  grandest  preparations  for  the  feast  have 
been  made  by  Badahung.  He  has  ordered  an  immense 
ditch  to  be  dug  which  is  to  contain  human  blood  in  suffi- 
cient  quantities   to   float   launches.      On   this   occasion 


30 

2,000  persons  will  be  slain.  The  expedition  against 
Abcokuta  has  been  deferred ;  but  the  king  has  put  his 
army  in  the  field  to  make  excursions  among  the  weaker 
tribes;  and  has  already  succeeded  in  making  some  cap- 
tures. The  young  and  strong  prisoners  will  be  sold,  and 
the  old  ones  beheaded  on  the  day  of  the  feast." 

If  the  above  repugnant  and*  bloody  notice  were  not  of 
itself  sufficient  evidence  in  favor  of  my  assertion,  it  would 
at  least  decide  all  the  points  to  the  investigation  of  which 
I  am  applying  myself ;  as  they  are  proven  not  only  by  the 
permanent  strife  in  which  those  Negro  nations  live,  whose 
ransom  it  has  been  attempted  to  abolish,  but  also  by  the 
inhuman  butcheries  to  which  their  respective  prisoners  are 
doomed. 

It  is  remarkable  what  little  effect  has  been  produced  in 
those  regions  by  the  continued  intercourse  of  the  English, 
their  protectors  and  friends,  who  know  beforehand,  and 
announce  to  the  world,  acts  of  such  barbarity,  and  yet  do 
nothing  to  prevent  their  perpetration ;  as  if  the  philan- 
thropy, of  which  they  so  much  boast,  in  favor  of  those 
unhappy  beings  would  not  be  more  opportunely  exercised 
by  preventing  the  horrible  butchery  which  is  announced 
to  take  place,  than  by  permitting  that  the  young  and 
strong  people,  whom  the  King  of  Dahomey  wishes  to  sell, 
should  be  slain  also  for  the  want  of  purchasers. 

Finally,  to  close  the  catalogue  of  proofs  which  jus- 
tify the  deportation  of  savage  Negroes,  who  eat  human 
flesh,  to  other  countries,  on  account  of  their  being  incapa- 
ble of  receiving  any  manner  of  culture,  whether  forced  or 
spontaneous,  in  their  own  country,  I  avail  myself  of  a  very 
curious  work  which  an  enlightened  friend  of  mine,  D.  Joa- 
quin J.  Navarro,  Lieutenant  of  the  Koyal  Navy,  has  just 
published,  who  speaks  as  an  eye  witness  of  the  greater 
part  of  what  he  states. 

Said  officer,  in  Her  Catholic  Majesty's  steamer  Vasco 
Nunez  de  Balboa,  took  part  in  the  new  and  most  recent 
colonization  of  our  Islands  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea^  and 
being  given  to  study  and  anxious  to  benefit  his  country  by 
his  labors,  he  wrote  with  admirable  judgment,  unquestion- 
able truth  and  great  facility,  some  "  Notes  on  the  state  of 
the  West  Coast  of  Africa"  which  the  Spanish  Government 
caused  to  be  published  at  the  public  expense. 

Although   these  Notes   treat  only  incidentally  of  the 


31 

customs  and  social  state  of  the  Negroes,  it  happens,  never- 
theless, that  the  intercourse  with  the  English  and  French 
factories  which  extend  from  Cape  Verd  to  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  have  not  been  productive  of  an  atom  of  civili- 
zation to  their  respective  nations,  they  still  continue 
to  live  in  the  same  manner  as  they  have  lived  from  the 
first  era  of  the  world ;"  because  those  establishments 
scarcely  trouble  themselves  about  anything  further  than 
the  profits  accrueing  to  them  from  the  ivory,  palm-oil, 
dyewoods  and  gold  which  they  export  from  those  countries 
in  very  great  quantities.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Kroumanes, 
who  are  the  most  civilized  Negroes  and  who  willingly 
enter  the  service  of  Europeans,  offering  themselves  to  the 
establishments  and  to  the  vessels,  practice  polygamy  to  an 
extravagant  degree  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following 
paragraph : — 

"  A  Krouman  considers  himself  independent  when  he 
ceases  to  hire  himself  out  to  work,  and  has  twenty  or 
thirty  wives  at  his  disposal.  At  his  death,  the  wives 
become  the  property  of  his  son,  as  a  part  of  his  estate ;  so 
that  many  have  their  own  mothers  for  wives  !"(1) 

Their  willingness  to  serve  the  Europeans  and  their  com- 
parative state  of  civilization  is  not,  however,  without 
danger  to  the  latter  ;  so  at  least  we  must  infer  from  the 
paragraph  with  which  the  said  author  in  the  Notes  to 
which  I  refer,  closes  his  description  of  that  country, 
saying : — 

"  The  object  of  the  commander  of  the  steamer  was  to 
obtain  on  this  coast  of  Krou  a  certain  number  of  indi- 
viduals of  this  race,  to  ship  in  each  of  the  vessels  which 
composed  this  naval  force,  some  for  ship  duty,  constant 
duty  in  the  tops  while  at  sea,  and  other  duties  of  this 
class,  and  also  to  work  on  board  the  tender;  but  it  was 
impossible  to  accomplish  it,  because  we  made  the  land  on 
this  rocky  coast  under  the  worst  possible  circumstances. 
It  was  very  dark  and  rainy,  so  that  certain  land  marks 
were  not  visible.  We  had  very  doubtful  confidence  in  the 
negroes  who  offered  to  pilot  the  vessel;  and,  finally,  the 
well-founded  apprehension  that  some  accident  might  hap- 
pen, the  consequences  of  which,  always  disagreeable, 
would  be  still  much  more  so  on  ah  inhospitable  coast, 

(1)  Navarrete  :  Apuntes,  §c. :  Costa  de  Krou,  p.  22. 


32 

where  far  from  receiving  efficient  aid  from  its  inhabitants, 
we  could  only  expect  to  be  under  the  necessity  of  keeping 
the  vessel  under  military  precautions,  in  order  to  avoid 
being  plundered." (1) 

Speaking  of  this  race  of  Kroumans,  my  friend,  the 
learned  author  of  the  Notes  which  I  am  now  reviewing, 
also  says,  "  they  are  possessed  by  foolish  superstitions; 
they  believe  in  their  jusjus,  guardian  or  evil  angels,  as  do 
all  the  races  who  remain  in  a  state  of  barbarism,  and 
among  whom  the  light  of  Christianity  has  not  been  dif- 
fused; but  they  have  none  of  those  horrible  and  bloody 
customs  which  are  so  common  among  the  natives  of  the 
bay  of  Biafa."(2) 

From  this  declaration,  made  with  such  unquestionable 
sincerity  by  Mr.  Navarro,  and  confirmed  in  other  parts  of 
his  work,  we  not  only  see  that  the  light  of  Christian- 
ity has  not  yet  been  diffused  among  the  Kroumans  of 
Western  Africa,  who  have  the  most  communication  with 
the  Europeans,  and  also  that  the  English  established  in 
those  parts  have  taken  more  care  to  look  after  their  own 
material  interests  than  to  Christianise  the  natives,  for  the 
purpose  of  extinguising  idolatry,  polygamy,  and  all  such 
abominations,  but  also  we  draw  as  an  irrefutable  conse- 
quence what  it  is  attempted  to  show  in  this  chapter,  viz. : 
that  the  savage  negroes  of  Western  Africa  wage  war 
against  each  other  from  instinct,  and  sacrifice  one  another 
as  will  be  stated  presently. 

"  In  the  interior  of  Cape  Coast,"  says  the  above-men- 
tioned author,  "is  situated  he  kingdom  of  Ashantee, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  despotic  monarchies 
in  all  Africa.  Its  inhabitants  are  wrapt  in  the  gloom  of 
the  most  abject  idolatry;  they  worship  sharks  and  ser- 
pents, and  they  add  to  this,  human  sacrifices,  in  all  their 
most  horrible  details.  This  remarkable  thirst  for  blood,  on 
the  part  of  the  monarch  and  his  people,  springs  not  only 
from  a  barbarous  desire  of  vengeance  on  such  enemies  as  fall 
into  their  hands,  in  legitimate  warfare,  but  also  from  the  be- 
lief that  their  deities  are  conciliated  by  such  sacrifices; 
that  the  troubled  manes  of  their  departed  heroes  are  thus 
appeased,  and  that  the  victims  will  be  their  slaves  in  the 

(1)  Navarrete  :   Apuntes,  §c.  :  Costa  de  Krou,  p.  22. 

(2)  Ibid.     Ibid. 


33 

life  to  come.  Sometimes  they  exhume  the  skulls  and 
other  bones  of  notable  men,  to  wash  them  with  the  blood 
of  their  victims.  The  graves  are  saturated  with  blood; 
and.,  although  it  is  supposed  that  some  of  their  customs 
are  those  which  prevailed  in  Asia  in  the  days  of  Moses, 
they  are,  without  doubt,  the  most  cruet  savages  to  be 
found  on  the  face  of  the  earth  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury."(1) 

I  am  not  aware  of  the  amount  of  data  which  will  be  re- 
quired to  convince  the  most  suspicious  credulity  that  the 
natural  state  of  African  negroes  in  their  own  country  is  of 
the  most  degraded  character ;  but  I  fully  believe  that 
what  I  have  here  written  will  stand  the  test  of  the  sever- 
est criticism.  The  remarks  I  have  made  in  the  present 
chapter,  and  those  I  shall  hereafter  put  forth,  will  show 
in  an  irresistible  manner,  that  the  warlike  propensity  of 
these  negroes  has  not  been  increased  by  the  slave  trade, 
neither  have  their  bad  customs  been  modified  by  the  pres- 
ence in  those  countries  of  the  English,  who  turn  their  at- 
tention to  everything  except  to  the  work  of  civilizing 
them. 

For  which  reasons,  and  because  the  limits  of  this  work 
will  not  allow  me  to  give  latitude  to  further  investiga- 
tions, I  will  consider  as  sufficient  those  already  given,  in 
order  to  pass  on  to  another  matter. 

(1)  Navarrete :  Description  of  the  coast  between  Gape  Palmas  and  Cape 
Lopez,  pp.  27  and  28. 


/ 


\ 


i 


CHAPTER  H, 


Respective  condition  of  the  nations  of  Eastern  Europe  when  discoveries 
in  Africa  and  Asia  were  made  towards  the  South  and  East. — Why  the 
civilization  of  said  countries  was  not  attempted  by  means  of  conquest, 
and  why  the  enslaving  of  their  inhabitants,  for  the  purpose  of  civilizing 
them,  by  cultivating  the  New  World  was  prefered. — First  privileges 
granted  to  introduce  African  slaves  in  America. — These  privileges  were 
obtained  by  the  Flemings  and  the  Genoese,  and  afterwards  by  the  Portu- 
guese, the  Dutch,  the  French,  and  the  English,  until  the  famous  contract 
of  asiento  was  made. — Losses  suffered  in  this  undertaking  by  some 
Spanish  companies  and  private  individuals,  arising  from  their  humanity. — 
Beginning  of  Spanish  legislation  in  reference  to  black  slaves. — Its  emi- 
nently moral  and  protective  character. — Obstacles  which  were  opposed 
to  the  introduction  of  slaves  in  the  New  World,  and  for  what  object. 


When  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  began  to  visit  the 
western  coast  of  Africa,  the  former  stimulated  by  their  pri- 
vate interest,  and  the  latter  by  a  speculative  idea,  to  them 
of  vast  importance,  they  found,  as  I  have  already  stated, 
in  the  countries  which  extend  to  the  Cape  of  Grood  Hope, 
previous  to  the  doubling  of  it  by  the  renowned  Vasco  de 
Gama,  a  multitude  of  savage  nations,  intractable  and  wild, 
who  in  many  instances  punished  with  death  the  daring  of 
the  intruders. 

This  suggested  the  idea  of  enslaving  those  miserable 
beings,  singly  or  collectively,  as  opportunity  served,  and 
of  conveying  them  to  Spain,  a  custom  which  prevailed  un- 
til towards  the  end  of  the  15th  century,  when  the  discov- 
ery of  the  New  World  brought  forth  material  deviations 
from  the  course  until  then  pursued. 

(35) 


36 

At  that  period  and  owing  to  the  spirit  of  discovery 
which  engrossed  the  mind  of  the  celebrated  Infante  Don 
Enrique  of  Portugal,  after  the  capture  of  Ceuta  in 
1415, (1)  the  Portuguese,  by  means  of  their  inroads  into 
Africa,  and  their  establishments  on  the  coasts  of  that 
continent,  ascertained  that  the  native  tribes  of  Negroes 
were  in  a  perpetual  state  of  barbarous  warfare  against  each 
other,  and  that  captives  could  be  rescued  with  great  fa- 
cility from  certain  death  by  being  exchanged  for  commo- 
dities of  little  value. 

For  this  reason,  and  if  we  bear  in  mind  what  were  at 
that  period  the  principles  of  jurisprudence  in  regard  to 
prisoners  who  were  not  Christians,  even  when  taken  in  the 
Peninsula  or  in  the  Mediterranean  during  the  subsequent 
wars  against  the  Turks,  we  cannot  be  surprised  that 
Spaniards,  as  well  as  Portuguese,  should  not  have  felt  over 
scrupulous  in  making  slaves  of  negroes,  especially  as  they 
did  so  with  the  eminently  Christian  object  of  rescuing  them 
frorrrinevitable  death. 

Arguing  upon  the  principles  of  modern  philosophy, 
there  is  no  denying  that  such  proceedings  were  deserving 
of  the  strongest  reproof,  since  it  would  have  been  more 
rational  to  introduce  civilization  among  the  African  tribes 
by  means  of  religion  and  the  support  of  a  moderate  mili- 
tary force,  than  by  subjecting  the  negroes  to  slavery  and 
conveying  them  to  distant  countries. 

But  as  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  spirit  which  prevail- 
ed in  former  ages  widely  differed  from  that  by  which  the 
actions  of  men  were  influenced  and  regulated  at  other  and 
more  recent  periods,  the  exploring  nations  were  satisfied 
with  doing  all  that  circumstances .  permitted  in  favor  of 
these  barbarians,  which  indeed  was  all  that  could  be  ex- 
pected, considering  that  they  rescued  them  from  inevitable 
death  at  the  foot  of  their  satanic  altars  and  conveyed  them 
to  civilized  countries  where  they  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
their  Creator  and  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  social  life. <2) 

(1)  Freire,    Vida  del  Infante  Bon  Enrique.     Book  iii. 

(2)  The  lack  of  judgment  with  which  past  events  are  commented  on 
according  to  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  time  befng,  meets  with  an  admirable 
reproof  in  the  answer  of  Cato,  when  he  was  taken  to  task  at  the  age  of  86 
for  some  imaginary  transgression  in  his  youth  :  "  It  is  difficult,  said  he, 
to  give  an  account  of  my  actions  to  men  who  live  in  an  age  which  is  not 
mine." 


/ 


37 

Nor  could  any  more  be  done  at  that  time,  when  Spain, 
not  yet  entirely  liberated  from  the  thraldom  of  the  Cres- 
cent, had  to  concentrate  her  efforts  to  drive  the  Mahomet- 
an legions  to  the  other  side  of  the  Straits;  and  when  this  sa- 
cred object  had  been  attained,  and  the  cross  had  been  rais- 
ed on  the  tower  of  la  Vela,  in  Granada,  from  the  depths  of 
a  boundless  Ocean  arose  the  World  which  Queen  Isabella  I. 
and  Columbus  had  called  into  existence  so  that  Spain  might 
civilize  it  without  looking  towards  other  conquests. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  accusation  can  be  brought  against 

the  Portuguese,  seeing  that  their  efforts  neither  tended  to 
.  .  "... 

acquire  territory,  nor  to  civilize  the  people  in  those  parts  of 
Africa.  The  report  of  the  lucrative  trade  in  spices,  per- 
fumes, and  precious  stones,  carried  on  with  the  East  Indies 
by  the  Venitians,  who  traversed  the  Mediterranean,  the  Red 
Sea,  and  the  desert  to  reach  those  lands,  had  been  widely 
diffused,  since  the  fortunate  voyage  of  Marco  Paolo,  and 
thus  the  minds  of  the  Portuguese  navigators  were  bent  ex- 
clusively on  discovering  a  new  and  shorter  passage  to  those 
regions  by  doubling  the  coast  of  Africa  towards  theEast.(1) 

It  is  true  that  the  infante  Don  Enrique,  whilst  encou- 
raging this  project,  did  not  scorn  the  acquisition  of  some 
territory  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  for  the  Order  of  Christ, 
of  which  he  was  Grand  Master, (2)  but  it  is  not  less  posi- 
tive, that  first  the  Moors,  opposite  the  Canary  Islands, 
and  afterwards  the  negroes  of  the  tropical  latitudes  beyond 
Sierra  Leone,  opposed  a  most  determined  resistance  to  the 
Portuguese  who  visited  them  for  the  aforesaid  object.  An- 
tonio Gonzalez  and  Nuno  Tristan,  (two  valiant  youths, 
who  gave  the  name  of  Angra  de  los  Caballos  (Horses' 
Cove),  to  that  part  of  the  coast  where  being  pursued 
by  the  natives  they  were  saved  by  the  fleetness  of  their 
horses)  testify  to  the  fact,  by  their  account  of  the  con- 
test in  which  both  were  engaged  in  1441  at  Cape  Blanco, 
and  by  the  violent  death  of  the  latter  which  took  place 
five  years  later  near  the  river  which  to  this  day  bears  his 
name.  Also  Gonzalo  de  Suitra, 'killed  in  the  same  place 
by  the  negroes,  Antonio  de  Nola,  Dionisio  Fernandez  Ca- 
damasto,  and  numerous  others,  who  owed  their -safety  in 

(1)  Lopez  de  Castaneda :  Historia  del  descubrimiento  y  conquista  de  la  India 
por  los  Portugueses,  lib.  i,  cap.  i. 

(2)  Freire  :   Vida  del  Infante  D.  Enrique,  lib.  iii. 


J 


38 

similar  conflicts,  to  their  good  fortune,  their  stout  hearts 
and  their  strong  right  arm.(1) 

England  at  that  time  was  not  a  maritime  power,  and 
had  no  consuls  even  in  the  most  important  settlements 
where  the  business  of  contracting  for  slaves  was  carried  on; 
France  was  more  occupied  in  invading  Navarre  and 
Rosellon,  and  in  defending  herself  in  Italy  against  the 
victorious  armies  of  our  generals,  than  in  exploring  un- 
known regions,  with  the  object  of  making  the  inhabitants 
participants  of  civilization  and  the  advantages  of  com- 
merce; it  is  not  therefore  surprising  that  no  plan  for  com- 
bining the  efforts  of  enlightened  nations  in  order  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  atrocious  warfare  among  the  Africans  was 
resolved  upon,  or  that  its  execution  should  be  contem- 
plated otherwise  than  on  the  small  scale  conceived  by 
D.  Enrique. (2) 

It  being  universally  known  that  the  negroes  were  kept 
in  a  miserable  state  of  perpetual  slavery  by  the  Moors  on 
their  frontiers/0  and  by  those  of  their  own  race,  it  became 
evident  that  the  only  practicable  means  of  ameliorating 
their  condition  was  to  redeem  them,  especially  such  as 
had  been  taken  captives  in  war,  from  that  state  of  barba- 
rism and  wretchedness.  In  this  manner  they  could  be  res- 
cued from  the  cruelty  to  which  they  all  would,  sooner  or 
later  fall  victims;  and  this  measure  could  be  adopted 
with  a. strict  regard  to  justice,  as  the  negroes  were  entire- 
ly devoid  of  that  moral  sentiment  from  which  arises  our 
attachment  to  our  native  land  and  our  kindred;  and  not- 
withstanding this  strange  want  of  feeling  which  was  a 
characteristic  of  that  wretched  people,  according  to  the 
testimony  of  reliable  authors,  all  that  were  taken  to  Spain 
were  treated  with  great  kindness  and  gentleness  by  their 
masters, (3)  that  is  to  say,  in  accordance  with  the  natural 
disposition  of  the  Spanish  people,  who  are  always  humane 
and  generous  towards  the  weak  and  defenceless. 

(1)  Barros  :  Da  Asia  Portuguesa\  Decada  primera,  libro  i.,  cap.  v.  Mar- 
tinez de  la  Puente :  Compendia  de  la  Historia  de  las  Indias,  lib  ii.,  cap.  i. 
Freire  :   Vida  del  Infante  D.  Enrique,  libros  iii..  y  iv.,  &c. 

(2)  In  one  of  the  voyages  to  Gape  Blanco  made  by  Anton  Gonzalvez 
and  Nuno  Tristan  in  1443,  they  fought  with  the  Moors,  as  usual,  and  hav- 
ing taken  10  prisoners,  the  moorish  chief  of  that  district  redeemed  them 
by  giving  an  equal  number  of  their  negro  slaves  in  exchange.  Barros: 
Da  Asia  Portuguesa  :  Decada  primera,  libro  i. 

(3)  Ortiz  de  Zuniga:  Anales  de  Sevilla  :  Lib.  XII. 

I 


39 

The  practice  of  introducing  negro  slaves  into  the  two 
kingdoms  of  the  Peninsula,  which  existed  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Xlllth  century,  under  the  provision  of 
a  legislation  no  wise  resembling  that  of  the  ancients,  and 
by  which  the  condition  of  these  unhappy  beings  was  pro- 
tected and  guaranteed,  now  received  the  sanction  of  the  law 
in  matters  of  slaves.  The  discovery  of  the  western  hemis- 
phere ocuijring  immediately  afterwards,  and  it  having  been 
to  a  certain  degree  ascertained  that  the  habits  of  the  in- 
dians  of  the  New  World  unfitted  them  for  the  arduous 
labor  of  agriculture,  and  more  especially  so  those  of  the 
Islands,  private  interest  prompted  experiments  to  be  made 
to  test  the  aptitude  of  the  negroes  for  this  labor,  which 
experiments  produced  such  admirable  results,  that  the  re- 
demption of  these  unfortunate  beings  was  officially  orga- 
nized and  a  great  number  was  taken  to  the  new  Spanish 
dominions. 

The  first  royal  privilege,  granted  in  due  form  for  the 
importation  of  negroes  into  the  West  Indies,  was  dated 
1517(1)  ;  and  Navarrete  commenting  on  this  fact  in  its 
bearings  on  the  interference  of  Father  Las  Casas,  in  fa- 
vor of  the  Indians  of  the  New  World,  says  :  "  He  came  to 
Spain  to  plead  their  cause,  and  in  May  1517,  arrived  at 
Aranda  where  the  Court  was  at  that  time,  and  where  the 
celebrated  Cardinal  Ximenez  de  Cisneros  lay  ill ;  for  this 
reason  he  could  not  confer  with  him  but  went  to  Valladolid, 
there  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  king,  Charles  I,  who  did 
not  reach  that  city  till  after  the  death  of  the  Cardinal. 
The  young  prince,  then  17  years  of  age,  in  a  country 
where  he  was  a  stranger,  thoroughly  ignorant  of  the 
Spanish  language,  and  controled  by  the  Flemings  who 
accompanied  him,  issued  at  their  suggestion  many  war- 
rants of  apportionment  and  grants  of  lands  in  the  Indies 
and  divers  licences  to  carry  slaves  to  those  dominions, 
notwithstanding  the  existing  prohibitions.  Las  Casas  well 
knew  that  the  way  to  accomplish  his  object  was  to  win 
the  good  will  and  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  these  Flemings, 
in  which  he  succeeded,  especially  with  Mr.  de  Laxas, 
Lord  Chamberlain  and  one  of  the  kind's  greatest  favorites  ; 
but  when  he  saw  that  his  plan  would  meet  with  some  dif- 
ficulties owing  to  the  cupidity  of  the  new  guests,  he  chan- 

* S 

(1)  La  Sagra :  Historia  Politica :  pagina  32 :  nota. 

I 


\ 


40 

ed  his  plan  and  proposed,  among  other  remedies,  that  the 
right  of  importing  slaves  should  be  given  to  the  Spaniards 
residing  in  the  Indies,  so  that  the  Indians  might  be  some- 
what relieved  on  the  plantations  and  in  the  mines.  This 
brought  up  the  question  as  to  how  many  slaves  would  be 
requisite  for  the  four  islands:  Hispaniola  (Santo  Domin- 
go), Fernandina  (Cuba),  San  Juan  (Porto  Kico),  and 
Jamaica,  and  information  having  been  demanded  from  the 
officials  of  the  department  whose  seat  was  at  Seville,  and 
whose  duty  it  was  to  take  cognizance  of  all  contracts  hav- 
ing reference  to  the  trade,  the  answer  was  that  four  thou- 
sand would  be  required.  The  Flemings  then  took  advan- 
tage of  their  influence  to  obtain  this  privilege  which  they 
sold  to  the  Genoese  for  24,000  ducats,  with  the  condition 
attached  that  the  king  should  grant  no  other  privilege  for 
eight  years.  We  therefore  "infer  from  this  narrative,  the 
veracity  of  which  cannot  be  questioned,  first:  that  Las  Ca- 
sas  in  order  to  relieve  the  Indians,  established  and  au- 
thorized the  traffic  in  negroes  for  the  Islands  of  the  New 
World,  as  if  they  were  not  rational  beings;  and  secondly: 
that  those  who  solicited  this  negotiation  and  intervened 
in  it,  were  not  Spaniards,  but  covetous  Flemings  and  traf- 
ficking Genoese." (1) 

Navarrete  in  this  passage,  reflects  strongly  on  Father 
Las  Casas,  and  not  .without  a  show  of  reason,  though, 
in  my  opinion  with  a  total  disregard  for  the  justification 
of  the  case  to  be  found  in  the  old  and  new  Testaments; 
for  what  else  but  slavery  and  the  transporting  of  negroes 
to  the  territories  of  the  New  World  could  the  wise  pro- 
phet Jeremiah  have  wished  to  announce  when  he  said: 
"  Like  as  ye  have  forsaken  me  and  served  strange  Gods  in 
your  lands,  so  shall  ye  serve  strangers  in  a  land  that  is  not 
yours  ?"  (2)  For  which  reason,  and  if  we  bear  in  mind  the 
humanity  with  which  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  pro- 
ceeded in  rescuing  the  African  negroes  from  slavery  and 
impending  death,  though  benefitting  themselves  by  their 
labor,  I  consider  Navarrete' s  remark,  "as  if  the  latter 
were  not  rational  beings"  particularly  uncall  for. 

Father  Las  Casas  is  reasonable  in  everything  but  when 


(1)  Navarrete  :  Coleccion  de  viages  y  descubrimienlos,  etc  :  Tomo  I.  Introduc- 
tion. 

(2)  Prophecies  of  Jeremia :  Chapter  V  ;  verse  19. 


41 

he  speaks  of  the  state  of  the  respective  souls  of  the  In- 
dians and  of  the  negroes,  because  although  by  the  above 
quotation,  his  advice  about  enslaving  the  negroes  might 
l)e  justified,  we  can  find  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  abundant 
texts  that  cannot  but  refer  in  a  certain  manner  to  what 
happened  with  the  Indians;  for  besides  what  St.  Luke 
has  anounced  in  his  version  of  the  Gospel  when  he  said  in 
denouncing  the  Hebrews  to  convert  them  to  the  Lord: 
"  Every  tree  therefore  which  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit 
is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire;"  (1)  in  Exodus,  as  if 
foreseeing  what  would  happen  to  the  Indians  for  their  ini- 
quities, will  be  found  the  following: 

"For  mine  angel  shall  go  before  thee  unto  the  Amo- 
rites,  and  the  Hittites  and  the  Perizzites  and  the  Canaan- 
ites,  and  the  Hivites,  and  the  Jebusites;  and  I  will  cut 
th%m  off.  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  their  Gods,  nor 
serve  them,  nor  do  after  their  works;  but  thou  shalt 
utterly  overthrow  them  and  quite  break  down  their  images. 
I  will  send  my  fear  before  thee,  and  will  destroy  all  the 
people  to  whom  thou  shalt  come;  and  I  will  make  all 
thine  enemies  turn  their  backs  unto  thee;  I  will  not  drive 
them  out  from  before  thee  in  one  year,  lest  the  land 
should  become  desolate,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  multi- 
ply against  thee.  By  little  and  little  I  will  drive  them 
out  from  before  thee,  until  thou  be  increased  and  inherit 
the  land."  (2) 

Navarrete  was  perfectly  correct  in  stating  that  the 
Spaniards  were  not  the  first  traders  between  Africa  and 
America,  not  only  at  that  time  but  for  many  years  after; 
for,  as  I  have  shown,  the  first  privilege  of  1517,  for  this 
traffic  was  granted  to  some  Flemings,  who  sold  it  to  a 
company  of  Genoese;  and  when  the  grant  expired,  owing 
to  the  great  number  of  slaves  then  in  the  West  Indies,  it 
was  not  renewed  for  some  time,  until  the  penury  of  the 
Royal  Exchequer,  induced  Philip  II.  to  make  another 
grant  to  a  Genoese-  company,  which  his  successors  extend- 
ed to  Gomez  Reimel,  a  Fleming,  from  1595  to  1600;  with 
Coutinho  brothers  to  1609;  with  Antonio  Fernandez  de 
Eloa  and  Manuel  Rodriguez  de  Lamego,  all  Portuguese, 
up  to  the  date  of  the  revolution  in    Portugal   in  1640: 

(1)  Chapter  III ;  verse  9.  A 

(2)  Exodus:  chapter  XXIII;  verses  23,  24,  27,  29  y  30. 


J 


42 

with  the  Dutchman  Coimans  to  1692:  with  the  Portuguese 
company  of  Guinea  to'  1701;  with  the  French  company  of 
Guinea  to  1712;  and  finally,  in  1750,  that  famous  treaty 
with  England  was  concluded,  which  gave  the  latter  a 
pretext  for  all  its  outrages  and  arbitrary  proceedings 
against  our  foreign  possessions. (1) 

It  is  true  that  during  some  intervals  that  occurred  be- 
tween the  expiration  of  each  successive  grant  and  its  renew- 
al, the  contractors  at  Seville  and  other  Spanish  companies, 
sometimes  undertook  to  provide  negroes  for  our  possessions 
in  America,  and  sometimes  the  proprietors  of  plantations 
were  allowed  to  introduce  them  free  from  duty,  for  once 
only.  , 

But  these  exceptions,  which  were  not  many,  only  served 
to  prove  that  the  Spaniards  were  not  the  best  calculated  to 
carry  on  this  commerce  on  an  extensive  scale,  even  through 
motives  of  humanity,  since  we  see  that  in  order  faithfully 
to  comply  with  the  rules  that  existed  for  the  good  treat- 
ment and  comfort  of  the  negroes  in  their  transportation, 
which  required  ample  means  to  satisfy  their  redemption, 
to  carry  the  best  men  from  the  coast  of  Guinea,  and  to 
bring  over  also  some  females,  all  the  enterprizes  of  the 
Spaniards  became  bankrupt  before  the  expiration  of  the 
contract,  and  the  contractors  at  Seville,  when  they  did 
this  business  on  account  of  the  government,  suffered  enor- 
mous losses.  (2) 

Nothing  else  could  be  expected,  if  the  trade  was  carried 
•  on  in  good  faith,  as  we  did,  in  conformity  with  our  natural 
disposition  and  love  of  justice  ;  for  the  traffic  once  es- 
tablished, the  laws  were  more  zealous  in  protecting  the 
moral  interests  of  the  contracted  than  those  of  the  con- 
tractors. Thus  it  was  that  in  1510,  previous  to  any  grant 
of  privileges,  when  but  few  negroes  had  as  yet  been  taken 
to  the  West  Indies,  and  those  few  the  property  of  private 
individuals,    Ferdinand  V  recommended    the    respective 


(1)  Navarrete  -.Collection  de  viages  y  descubrimientos :  Tomo  I,  Introduccion. 
Antunez:  Memorias  Historicas :  Tomo  I,  pag.  391,  y  tomo  II,  pag.  263. 
Zamora :  Legislation  Ultramarina  :  Tomo  III,  artfculo  titulado  "  Esclavitud 
y  Esclavos."  etc. 

(2)  It  was  ordered  that  one  ton  should  be  allowed  for  every  two  negroes 
according  to  the  dimensions  of  the  vessel,  and  although  foreign  contract- 
ors infringed  this  rule  allowing  them  less  space,  the  Spaniards  never  de- 
viated from  it  nor  from  that  relative  to  their  food. 


43 

owners  to  encourage  marriages  among  their  slaves  in  order 
to  promote  a  better  state  of  tranquility  and  order;(1)  anl 
afterwards,  by  a  series  of  Koyal  decrees  he  not  only  pro- 
hibited that  those  who  had  licence  to  trade  in  Guinea 
should  bring  away  married  negroes  without  their  wives 
and  children,  although  the  latter  could  be  of  no  use  in 
the  Colonies,  but  he  also  established  as  a  general  rule 
that  one-third  of  every  cargo  of  negroes  intended  for  the 
Spanish  possessions  in  the  New  World,  should  consist  of 
women. (2)  Another  guarantee  given  by  our  laws  to  protect 
the  morals  of  the  Spanish  Colonies  was  that  concerning  the 
preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the  Christian  faith;  for 
which  purpose  many  decrees  and  Royal  ordinances  were  is- 
sued, directing  that  the  slaves  taken  to  the  West  Indies  be 
exclusively  from  the  coast  of  Cape  Verd,  Angola,  Guinea 
and  the  adjacent  Islands,  of  the  race  called  Bozales:  this 
decree  was  enacted  because  some  unscrupulous  contractors 
and  speculators,  seeing  that  the  Bozales  had  advanced  in 
price,  rather  than  to  redeem  those  wretched  creatures  from 
an  ignominious  life  and  inevitable  death,  hoping  to  in- 
crease their  gains,  went  to  the  Islands  of  Sardinia,  Ma- 
yorca  and  Minorca  there  to  buy  at  a  much  lower  price  the 
natives  of  Barbary  taken  on  the  coast  opposite  to  Spain, 
who  were  mostly  mulatoes  and  negroes,  but  unfortunately 
some  of  whom  were  whites. 

For  this  reason,  on  the  25th  of  February  1530,  a  decree 
was  issued  prohibiting  the  taking  of  white  slaves  to  the 
Colonies  ;  another  prohibition  was  promulgated  the  19th 
of  December  1531,  respecting  the  natives  of  Barbary;  and 
on  the  1st  of  May  1543,  a  law  was  passed  to  the  same  ef- 
fect relative  to  all  mulatoes  coming  from  the  same  place 
-*-"  Because  (said  the  law)  the  negroes  who  live  in  that 
part  of  the  Levant  say  that  they  belong  to  the  Moorish 
or  Mahometan  caste,  and  as  others  would  associate  with 
them  in  a  new  land  where  the  Catholic  faith  is  now 
being  implanted,  it  is  against  our  interest  to  introduce  such 
people/;(3) 

(1)  La  Sagra :  Historia  Politica.     Apendice  :  No.  89. 

(2)  The  former  is  in  a  Royal  Letter  Patent  dated  Feb'y.  1st  1570,  and 
the  latter  in  another  of  Jan'y.  2d  1586. 

(3)  Antuniz  :  Memorias  Mistoricas :  tomo  I — Recapitulation  de  las  leyes  de 
India,  §c. 


\ 


44 

With  the  object  of  keeping  the  negroes  already  in  the 
Spanish  dominions  in  an  orderly  state,  after  some  years  of 
experience  as  to  the  qualities  of  the  race  or  nation  from 
which  they  came,  with  the  view  of  guaranteeing  the  lives 
and  property  to  the  Spaniards  who  benefitted  themselves 
by  their  labor,  and  which  were  not  always  secure  among 
such  servants,  the  Kings  of  Spain  prohibited  the  carrying 
slaves  to  the  Colonies  from  the  territories  where  they  were 
most  valuable,  even  if  those  places  were  within  the  limits 
where  the  redemption  was  lawful. 

The  first  decree  in  reference  to  the  prohibition  was  is- 
sued the  11th  of  May  1526,  immediately  after  some  com- 
motion caused  by  the  insurrection  of  the  negroes  against 
their  masters,  and  with  the  remembrance  fresh  on  their 
minds  of  similar  occurences  in  Santo  Domingo  in  1522. 
In  this  decree  the  shipping  of  crafty  negroes  (ladinos)  was 
prohibited,  without  determining  any  place  of  embarkation, 
and  merely  because  being  of  bad  habits  (undoubtedly  can- 
nibals) they  were  not  wanted  in  Spain,  and  in  the  Indies 
they  would  do  m&re  harm  than  good  by  contaminating  the 
slaves  already  reclaimed  and  submissive  gentle  and  obe- 
dient. Subsequently  on  the  28th  of  September  1532, 
a  new  law  was  issued  prohibiting  that  negroes  be  taken 
from  the  Island  of  Guadalupe,  because  they  were  of  a 
passionate,  disobedient,  turbulent  and  incorrigible  race, 
and  were  the  cause  of  all  the  insurrections  and  consequent 
loss  of  life  which  had  occured  among  the  Christians  in 
Porto  Kico  and  the  other  Islands. (2) 

By  what  has  been  said  of  the  traffic  in  reference  to 
its  origin  and  continuance  while  it  was  carried  on  by  con- 
tract, the  equitable,  humane,  civilizing,  and  philanthropic 
feelings  that  prevailed  among  our  legislators  respecting 
the  redemption  and  service  of  the  negroes  are  fully  demon- 
strated. 

Yet,  as  this  is  but  a  slight  sketch  of  the  regulations  which 
afterwards  became  laws  in  our  Colonies,  I  will  put  aside 
all  other  considerations  and  enter  at  once  and  fully  on  the 
exposition  and  explanation  of  the  laws  existing  at  that 
period. 

(2)  Antuniz  :  Memorias  Historicas  :  tomo  I. — Bacapitulacion  de  las  leyes  de 
Indias,  §c. 


/ 


CHAPTER  IH, 


The  ideas  of  the  ancient  laws  in  matters  of  slaves  excite  public  senti- 
ment against  modern  slavery. — Radical  difference  which  exists  oetween 
the  legislation  of  the  heathens  and  that  of  our  times  respecting  said  institu- 
tion.— Manner  in  which  the  Spaniards  practically  exhibited  this  difference, 
from  the  time  that  they  introduced  slavery  into  their  colonies. — Religious 
principles  which  predominated  in  the  formation  of  their  laws. — Royal 
letters  patent  and  circular  instructions  to  the  Indies  dated  31st  May,  1789, 
respecting  the  education,  treatment  and  occupation  of  the  slaves. — Com- 
ments made  on  the  preceding  document  for  the  purpose  of  doing  away 
errors  of  great  magnitude. 


The  natural  abhorrence  with  which  persons  possessed  of 
humane  feelings,  and  professing  the  Christian  faith,  look 
upon  the  fact  that  slavery  is  established  as  a  legal  institu- 
tion in  our  enlightened  age,  does  not  proceed  so  much  from 
the  nature  of  the  institution  thus  condemned,  as  from  the 
name  by>  which  it  is  known.  For,  having  learned  from 
the  pages  of  history  that  slavery,  in  the  darker  ages,  was 
a  total  deprivation  of  human  rights,  and  that  the  owners 
could  dispose,  at  theip  caprice,  not  only  of  the  persons,  but 
also  of  the  lives  of  their  slaves,  the  mind  must  evidently 
revolt  at  so  barbarous  a  legislation,  although  the  terrible 
power  of  life  and  death  may  no  longer  exist. 

And  while  admitting  that  "  Slavery  "  is  not  an  appro- 
priate name  for  the  status  of  the  negroes,  for  the  sole  rea- 
s6n  that  their  labor  is  compulsory,  yet  it  is  the  general 
impresion  that,  though  the  owners  have  no  longer  the 
power  of  taking  the  lives  of  their  slaves  according  to  their 
caprice,  they  may  mutilate  their  limbs,  brand  them 
with  ignominious  marks,  inflict  cruel  punishments  on 
them,  destine  them  to  immoral  purposes  and  compel  them 
to  labor  day  and  night  without  relaxation. 

1(45) 


.46 

These  inductions,  which  appear  logical,  and  which  cer- 
tainly would  be  so,  had  not  a  great  reform  taken  place, 
by  which  they  are  set  at  naught,  have  powerfully  contri- 
buted to  the  clamorous,  though  groundless  charges,  which 
have  been  made  against  us,  not  only  by  foreigners,  but 
even  by  some  of  our  own  people.  For  which  reason  and  in 
order  to  enable  my  readers  to  form  an  unbiased  j  udgment 
of  our  proceedings  in  matters  of  slavery,  I  shall  insert  in 
the  following  pages  the  regulations  which  have  been  made 
concerning  the  treatment  of  slaves  in  our  colonies,  where 
they  are  enforced  and  scrupulously  observed. 

No  longer,  as  in  former  times,  is  slavery  imposed  indis- 
criminately and  as  a  natural  right  on  the  vanquished,  to 
whatever  class,  condition  or  race  they  belonged,  whether 
apostles  or  sectarians  of  a  sublime  doctrine,  philosophers 
cultivating  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  or  proletarians 
enured  to  the  hardships  of  manual  or  agricultural  labor  ; 
neither  is  it  intended  to  enslave  that  mysterious  excres- 
cence of  the  human  species  which  populates  a  considerable 
'portion  of  South  Western  Africa,  and  who,  neither  in 
their  local  intercourse,  nor  when  conveyed  to  the  centre  of 
civilization,  have  given  proofs  of  their  capability  to  con- 
tribute in  the  least  degree  to  the  universal  progress  which 
develops  itself  in  all  other  human  beings  with  the  aid  of 
intellect. 

These  wretched  beings,  who  are  only  capable  of  imitat- 
ing what  they  see,  and  who  never  perform  any  kind  of 
labor  except  what  is  taught  to  them  ;  — whose  mental  ca- 
pacity is  confined  exclusively  to  the  retentive  faculty,  al- 
though, at  times,  the  remarkable  aptitude  with  which 
some  individual,  more  favored  than  the  rest,  perfects  him- 
self in  what  he  has  been  taught,  may  appear  to  proceed 
from  faculties  of  a  higher  order  ; — those  unfortunate  be- 
ings, who  have  been  ranked,  by  Christianity,  among  the 
descendants  of  Noah,  and  have  been  endowed,  by  the  law, 
with  all  the  rights  common  to  mankind,  are  not  consider- 
ed as  tilings,  as  were  the  slaves  of  Koine,  Greece,  Gaul  and 
the  Northern  nations  (who  had  been  chieftains  and  war- 
riors, and  owed  the  irreparable  loss  of  their  rank,  power 
and  freedom  to  chances  of  war),  but  live  among  us  under 
the  protection  of  the  laws,  with  Till  the  attributes  of  per- 
sons, and  are  treated  as  suoh,  in  their  civil  status,  accord- 
ing to  thq  codes  of  laws  wherein  it  is  so  ordered. 


47 

They  are  not  deprived  of  the  sweet  ties  of  kindred,  nor 
are  their  children  torn  from  them  in  infancy  as  was  done 
to  slaves  in  ancient  times  by  the  mere  command  of  their 
masters.  They  are  not  exposed  to  bodily  punishment  at 
the  caprice  of  their  masters,  but  solely  for  proven  faults, 
and,  even  then,  the  punishment  is  always  moderate  and 
of  such  a  kind  as  to  prove  beneficial.  They  are  not  com- 
pelled to  combat  with  wild  beasts  or  their  fellow-slaves  in 
the  amphitheatre,  nor  are  they  punished  with  severity  for 
the  veriest  trifles.  There  is  no  danger  that  their  blood  will 
be  made  to  flow  to  add  to  the  gaieties  ot  a  festival,  at  the 
caprice  of  another  Quintius  Flaminius,  nor  will  they  be 
hurried  to  execution  in  masses  of  four  hundred,  to  avenge 
the  assassination  of  one  man,  although  their  innocence  of 
the  crime  was  clearly  proved.  (1)  No!  Christianity  has 
invaded  slavery  to  abolish  that  of  the  people  of  civilized 
nations,  and  to  infuse  the  principle  of  its  holy  charity  in- 
.  to  that  of  those  beings  who  are  rescued  from  a  state  of 
barbarism  by  universal  commerce,  to  be  employed  for  the 
general  good,  and,  evidently,  for  their  own  benefit.  For 
the  Holy  Spirit,  through  the  mouth  of  the  Apostles,  has 
spoken  to  both  servants  and  masters  ;  and,  if  he  has  said 
to  the  former  :  "  Servants  be  obedient  to  them  that  are 
your  masters  according  to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trem- 
blings in  singleness  of  heart,  as  unto  Christ ;  not  with 
eye-service  as  men  pleasers,  but  as  the  servants  of  Christ, 
doing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart ;  with  good  will 
doing  service,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  to  men ;  knowing 
that  whatsoever  good  thing  any  man  doeth,  the  same  shall 
he  receive  of  the  Lord,  whether  he  be  bond  or  free  ;  "  he 
has  also  said  to  the  latter  :  "And  ye  masters  do  the  same 
thing  unto  them,  forbearing  threatening,  knowing  that 
your  Master  is  also  in  heaven ;  neither  is  there  respect  of 
persons  with  him.  (2) 

Having  contemplated  the  different  aspects  of  slavery 
after  the  triumph  of  our  Holy  Religion,  it  is  evident  that 
all  its  fundamental  principles  have  been  changed,  and  we 
could  almost  say,  technically,  that  slavery  no  longer  exists, 
as  will  be  demonstrated  by  the  regulations  already  men- 
tioned ;    and  I  wish,  here,  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 

(1)  Tacitus  :  Annal,  lib.  IX,  43. 

(2)  St.  Paul's  epist.  to  the  Ephesians,  vi,  5,  6,  7,  8  and  a. 


) 


48 

that,  from  the  commencement  of  the  trade  in  negroes,  no 
precautions  have  heen  omitted  which  could  possibly  be 
conducive  to  their  welfare  ;  and  this  humane  policy  was 
pursued,  not  only  with  the  slaves  in  our  own  possessions, 
where  the  improvement  of  their  condition  was  encouraged 
in  every  imaginable  manner,  and  freedom  was  accessible 
to  those  who  chose  to  earn  it  by  their  industry  and  hones- 
ty, but  also  with  those  in  the  neighboring  colonies  which 
were  established  in  the  course  of  time. 

In  order  that  my  readers  may  see  the  truth  of  this  sta- 
tement, they  must  know  that,  in  1680,  1693,  1733,  1740 
and  1759,  a  general  ordinance  was  promulgated  to  the  effect 
that :  "  all  negroes,  of  both  sexes,  who  should  fly  from 
the  English  and  Dutch  colonies,  and  take  refuge  in  the 
provinces  of  New  Spain,  with  the  intention  of  embracing 
the  Catholic  faith,  should  at  once  be  declared  free,  and 
should  not  be  sold  again  nor  returned  to  their  former  mas- 
ters "  (1);  which  ordinance,  though  infringing  the  rights 
of  said  colonies  to  a  certain  extent,  was,  nevertheless,  com- 
mendable considering  the  excellent  intentions  and  Christ- 
ian spirit  from  which  it  proceeded.  This  law  was  so  scru- 
pulously observed  that,  when  the  governor  of  the  Island 
of  Trinidad  (then  one  of  our  possessions)  ordered  the  res- 
titution of  a  mulatto  woman  who,  with  six  children,  had 
taken  refuge  there,  having  escaped  from  her  English  own- 
ers, in  the  Island  of  Granada;  and  a  free  mulatto,  daught- 
er of  said  slave  and  resident  of  Trinidad,  presented  a  peti- 
tion interceding  for  the  whole  family,  and  offering  to  pay 
their  ransom,  a  decree  was  issued  forbiding  the  restitu- 
tion of  the  fugitives  in  the  most  positive  and  conclusive 
terms  ;  this  decision  being  greatly  influenced  by  the  fact 
that  the  English  inflicted  severe  and  inhuman  punishments 
on  their  slaves  in  such  cases,  as  was  shown  in  the  petition 
of  the  mulatto,  by  which  she  obtained  the  freedom  of  her 
mother  and  brethren  without  paying  any  compensation  to 
the  owners.  (2) 

(1)  Zamora :  Legislation   Ultramarina,  vol.  in,  article  "Slavery,  slaves." 

(2)  Ditto,  ditto,  ditto:  However  it  is  necessary  to  remark  here  that  in  the 
course  of  time,  as  the  ideas  of  right  became  more  correct,  and  the  com- 
munication among  neighboring  colonies  more  frequent,  agreements  were 
entered  into,  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  to  their  owners,  stipulating 
always  that  they  should  be  punished  with  moderation,  and  a  garantee 
was  required  sufficient  to  ensure  the  fulfilment  of  this  humane  clause. 


49 

Our  legislators  took  the  most  special  pains  with  the 
regulations  concerning  religious  matters,  and  these  are 
expressed  with  such  mildness  and  charity  that  they  alone 
would  suffice  as  an  evidence  of  the  spirit  which  predomi- 
nated in  the  enactment  of  these  laws.  As  an  example,  I 
will  give  the  words  of  the  fourth  Constitution  of  the  dio- 
cesan Synod  of  Cuba,  which  treats  of  the  obligation  of 
masters  to  see  to  the  religious  instruction  and  baptism  of 
their  slaves,  that  Synod  being  held  in  1680,  and  approved 
by  a  Uoyal  decree  of  August  9,  1682  : 

"  God,  our  Lord,  having  given  to  the  Bozal  negroes, who 
have  been  brought  to  this  Island,  the  blessing  of  living 
among  Christians,  there  to  enjoy,  among  other  privileges, 
the  rites  of  holy  Baptism;  and,  as  we  understand  that 
many  owners  of  slaves  have  had  them  in  their  possession 
more  than  two  or  three  years,  and  have  not  had  them  bap- 
tized, we  direct  that  all  those  who  possess  slaves  who 
have  not  received  the  waters  of  Holy  Baptism,  shall  send 
them  to  be  baptized,  within  two  months,  duly  instructed  in 
the  Christian  doctrine;  and  those  who,  in  future,  shall  buy 
slaves  from  the  vessels  that  arrive,  shall  teach  them  said 
doctrine,  with  all  the  care  and  vigilance  which  these  poor 
negroes  require,  and  send  them3  within  the  period  of  six 
months,  to  the  parish  church,  to  be  baptized,  under  penal- 
ty of  excommunication  to  the  owners,  and  a  fine  of  ten 
ducats,  to  be  applied  according  to  the  Royal  decree  of 
H.  M.;  and  under  the  same  penalty,  after  they  have  bought 
them,  shall  give  notice  to  the  beneficiary  p:  iests  of  the  pa- 
rishes, so  that  they  may  be  registered  by  them,  and  care 
be  taken  that,  the  six  months  being  past,  their  owners 
shall  have  them  baptized;  and,  if  they  should  not  be  in- 
structed in  the  Christian  doctrine,  we  order  the  priests 
to  personally  instruct  them,  and  the  owners  shall  pay 
said  priests  a  sufficient  compensation  for  such  instruc- 
tion, as  a  penalty  for  such  omission  and  neglect;  and  in 
order  that  this  may  take  effect,  we  order  the  ecclesiastical 
judges  to  compel  the  owners  to  pay  the  stipend  which 
these  clergymen  may  claim,  with  penalties  and  censures, 
for  which  we  give  them  full  power. 

"And  because  it  is  our  province  and  that  of  said  minis- 
ters to  teach  the  Christian  faith  to  the  negroes  and  to 
ascertain  that  they  are  duly  instructed  therein  ;  we  or- 
der said  clergymen   (as   it  is  commanded  in  one  of  the 


) 


50 

Constitutions  of  this  Synod)  that  on  every  Sunday  in  the 
afternoon,  they  shall  ring  the  church-bell,  calling  every 
slave  to  go  and  learn  the  Christian  Catechism  and  prayers, 
enquiring  like  vigilant  pastors,  who  are  the  absent,  and 
compelling  their  presence  together  withthat  of  their  mas- 
ters, it  being  the  duty  of  both,  as  faithful  Catholic  Chris- 
tians, to  endeavor  by  all  possible  means,  that  the  slaves 
be  instructed  in  the  Christian  Religion,  and  baptized  after 
being  so  instructed  ;  with  the  observance  of  which  regula- 
tion we  gravely  charge  the  conscience  of  all  concerned."*1* 

Although  for  the  object  indicated,  a  few  words  of  the 
foregoing  Constitution  would  have  been  sufficient,  I  have 
prefered  to  copy  it  entire,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how 
laws  were  made  for  those  regions,  sofar  removed  from  the 
vigilance  of  the  metropolis.  Thus  the  laws,  royal  ordi- 
nances and  regulations,  which  were  written  on  matters 
concerning  the  West  Indies,  were  so  constructed  as  to 
insure  their  perfect  fulfilment  by  arousing  the  interests 
and  stimulating  the  competition  of  the  different  adminis- 
trative jurisdictions  in  the  discharge  of  their  dulses,  be- 
sides appealing  to  their  consciences. 

An  immense  number  of  decrees  all  equally  humane 
were  issued  by  our  monarchs  and  tribunals,  as  much  in 
the  aforesaid  matters,  as  in  all  others  appertaining  to  the 
moral  and  material  existence  of  the  negroes,  so  that,  not 
only  the  good  treatment  of  the  slave  was  guaranteed  by  the 
law  and  at  the  same  time  by  the  interest  of  the  proprietor, 
but  also  his  civilization  when  compared  to  the  miserable 
estate  of  his  origin;  and  even  his  freedom,  under  much 
better  conditions,  could  be  held  for  certain. 

Nevertheless,  these  ordinances  and  royal  decrees  which 
were  issued  for  so  laudable  an  object  did  not  form  a  com- 
plete and  uniform  body  of  laws,  being  interspersed  among 
others  incompatible  with  their  tendencies,  in  the  Code  of 
laws  of  the  Indies,  and  in  the  collections  of  general  ins- 
tructions to  the  viceroys  and  governors.  For  which  rea- 
son, and  owing  to  the  great  importance  of  the  matter, 
which  will  become  evident  when  it  is  considered  that  the 
redemption  of  the  negroes  had  been  enormously  developed 
by  the  privilege  which  was  finally  granted  to  all  vessels, 


(1)  Zamora  :  Legislation  Ultramarina  :  vol.  Ill,  art.  "  Esclavitud,  escla- 


vos.  " 


■   51 

national  and  foreign,  to  carry  on  the  trade,  so  that  in  the 
French  colonies  slavery  was  already  regulated  by  a  special 
ordinance,  entitled  Code  Noir,ll)  the  piety  of  king 
Charles  IV,  opportunely  stimulated  by  his  royal  council 
of  the  Indies,  ordered  the  compiling  of  all  the  statutes 
relating  to  the  negroes,  from  wjiich  resulted  the  following  : 

Koyal  decree  and  circular  letter  of  instruction  to 
tlie  Indies,  of  May  31s£  1789,  on  the  Education,  Treat- 
ment and  Occupation  of  Negroes. 

I,  the  King,  &c,  In  the  Leyes  de  Partida  and  other 
Codes  of  legislation  regarding  these  realms,  in  the  Beco- 
pilacion  de  las  Indias,  in  the  decrees  both  general  and 
special,  having  reference  to  the  administration  of  my  do- 
minions in  America,  from  the  time  of  their  discovery, 
as  also  in  the  ordinances  which,  after  having  been  exa- 
mined by  my  council  of  the  Indies,  have  been  sanctioned 
with  my  Royal  approbation,  a  system  has  been  established 
tending  to  provide  for  the  usefulness,  education  of  the 
slaves,  and  denning  their  treatment  and  occupation  in  a 
manner  conformable  with  principles  and  regulations  dic- 
tated by  religion,  humanity  and  the  good  of  the  State, 
and  compatible  with  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the 
preservation  of  public  tranquillity. 

Nevertheless,  considering  that  all  my  subjects  in  Ame- 
rica who  own  slaves,  cannot  without  great  difficulty  ac- 
quaint themselves  sufficiently  in  all  the  dispositions  of  the 
laws  comprised  in  said  compendiums,  and  that,  owing  to 
this  difficulty,  notwithstanding  the  orders  of  my  august 
predecessors  respecting  the  education,  welfare  and  occu- 
pation of  slaves,  many  proprietors  and  overseers  have  in- 
troduced abuses  in  direct  opposition  to  the  object  contem- 
plated by  the  existing  legislation  and  other  general  and 
special  measures  taken  in  the  matter ;  considering  also 
that  the  number  of  slaves  in  America  is  likely  to  be  in- 
creased in  consequence  of  the  privilege  to  carry  on  the 
trade  which  I  have  granted  to  my  subjects,  by  article  1 
of  my  decree  of  28  February  last ;  and  whereas  it  is  my 
duty  to  extend  my  royal  protection  to  this  class  of  the  hu- 
man family,  in  order  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such 
abuses,  and  while  the  laws  for  this  highly  important  object 

(1)  Antunez  :  Memorias  Hist  Hcas  ;  vol.  II. 


52. 

are  being  digested  and  condensed  in  a  General  Code,  espe- 
cially adapted  to  the  government  of  the  Indies,  I  have 
resolved  that,  for  the  present,  all  owners  and  possessors  of 
slaves  in  my  dominions  shall  punctually  conform  with 
the  following  instructions  : 

"  Chapter  I  :  Education. — Every  owner  of  slaves,  of 
whatever  class  or  condition  he  may  be,  shall  instruct  them 
in  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  faith  and  in  the  fundamen- 
tal truths,  so  that  they  may  be  baptized  within  one  year  of 
their  residence  in  my  dominions.  They  shall  take  care  that 
the  christian  doctrine  be  explained  to  them  on  all  feast  days 
of  precept,  on  which  days  they  shall  not  be  allowed  to  labor 
either  for  themselves  or  for  their  masters,  except  in  the 
harvest  season,  when  it  is  customary  to  concede  permission 
to  that  effect.  On  those  days,  and  on  all  others  when  it 
is  obligatory  to  attend  Mass,  the  owners  of  plantations  shall 
pay  priests  to  come  and  celebrate  divine  service,  to  ex- 
plain the  christian  doctrine  and  administer  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ments, at  the  times  appointed  by  the  church,  and~at  all 
other  times  when  the  slaves  may  require  or  demand  them; 
moreover,  on  every  week  day  after  their  work  is  over,  they 
shall  recite  the  Rosary,  either  in  presence  of  their  owner 
or  overseer,  with  the  greatest  reverence  and  devotion." 

"Chapter  II :  Food  and  Clothing. — It  is  obligatory 
on  the  >part  of  owners  properly  to  feed  and  clothe  their 
slaves,  both  male  and  female,  which  obligation  extends 
also  to  the  children  of  said  slaves,  although  neither  males 
nor  females  are  considered  to  afford  any  compensation  for 
their  maintenance  whilst  under  the  age  of  fourteen  and 
twelve,  respectively. 

But,  as  it  is  impossible  to  establish  any  fixed  regula- 
tion with  regard  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  food, 
and  the  kind  of  clothing  that  must  be  furnished  to  them, 
owing  to  the  variety  of  climates,  and  other  local  peculiari- 
ties, it  is  hereby  ordered  that,  with  regard  to  these  points, 
the  judges  of  the  respective  districts,  with  the  consent  of 
the  Corporation,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Attorney  Ge- 
neral, in  his  capacity  of  Protector  of  the  slaves,  shall  in- 
dicate and  determine  the  quantity, and  quality  of  food, 
and  kind  of  clothing  which  shall  be  furnished  to  the 
slaves  by  their  owners,  according  to    their  age  and  sex, 


53 

taking  as  a  rule  that  both  food  and  clothing  shall  be  of 
the  same  kind  and  description  as  those  that,  in  confor- 
mity with  the  customs  of  the  country,  are  allowed  to  free 
laborers;  which  Eegulation  being  approved  by  the  District 
Court,  shall  be  posted  monthly  in  all  \h.e  towns,  on  the 
doors  of  the  Town-houses,  and  churches,  and  of  the  cha- 
pels belonging  to  the  plantations,  so  that  it  may  be  seen 
by  all,  and  none  plead  ignorance." 

"Chapter  III:  Occupation  of .  the  slaves. — The  first, 
and  principal  employment  of  the  slaves,  shall  be  agricul- 
tural and  other  field  labor,  and  not  the  occupations  of  a 
sedentary  life  ;  and  in  order  that  the  owners  and  the  State 
may  derive  the  due  advantage  from  their  labors,  and  that 
the  slaves  may  perform  them  properly,  the  judges  of  the 
cities  and  towns,  in  the  manner  prescribed  in  the  foregoing 
chapter,  shall  regulate  the  amount  of  daily  labor  of  the 
slaves,  in  proportion  to  their  age,  strength  and  power,  in 
such  a  manner,  that  while  their  hours  of  labor  last  only 
from  sunrise  to  sunset,  two  of  these  hours  shall  be  exclu- 
sively employed  by  them  in  working  for  their  own  benefit. 
The  owners  and  overseers  shall  not  have  power  to  com- 
pel slaves  over  60  or  under  17  years  of  age,  to  do  full 
work,  neither  to  employ  females  in  labor  not  conformable 
to  their  sex,  or  where  they  have  to  mix  with  the  males; 
nor  shall  they  be  made  to  work  as  field  hands  ;  and  when- 
ever they  shall  be  appointed  to  domestic  service,  the  owners 
shall  contribute  a  compensation  of  two  ducats  annually, 
as  provided  in  the  8th  chapter  of  the  Koyal  Decree  of 
February  28th  last,  which  has  "been   already  cited." 

"Chapter  IV:  Amusements. — On  all  feast  days  of 
obligation,  <fn  which  the  owners  cannot  oblige  or  permit 
their  slaves  to  work,  after  the  latter  have  heard  Mass,  and 
received  religious  instruction,  the  masters,  and  in  their 
absence  the  overseers,  shall  encourage  the  slaves  to  engage 
in  simple  and  innocent  recreation,  under  their  personal 
supervision,  without  permitting  them  to  join  the  slaves  of 
other  plantations  ;.  and  the  two  sexes  being  kept  apart, 
avoiding  drunkenness,  and  causing  the  amusement  to 
cease  before  the  call  to  prayers,  at  sunset. 

"Chapter  V:  Dwellings  and  Sick  Boom. —  Separate 


1 


54 

dwellings  shall  be  provided  for  each  sex,  and  cohabitation 
permitted  to  married  couples  only.  Said  dwellings  must 
be  comfortable,  sufficiently  ventilated,  and  calculated  to 
shelter  the  occupants  from  the  inclemencies  of  the  wea- 
ther. The  rooms' and  cabins  shall  be  furnished  with  rais- 
ed beds,  blankets^and  all  the  necessary  bed-clothing,  and 
separated  from  each  other  in  such  a  manner  as  to  afford 
accommodation  for  one  or  two  persons  only. — Another 
well-sheltered  and  comfortable  room  shall  be  appropriated 
to  the  sick,  who  shall  be  supplied  by  their  owner  with 
everything  necessary;  and  in  case  there  be  no"  accommo- 
dations on  the  estate,  or  by  reason  of  the  proximity  of  a 
town,  they  prefer  to  send  them  to  the  hospital,  the  owner 
shall  pay,  for  their  admission  the  daily  sum  designated  in 
Chapter  II ;  and  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  the  slave, 
the  owner  shall  pay  the  burial  expenses." 

"Chapter  VI :  Of  the  aged  and  infirm. — The  slaves^ 
who  owing  to  their,  advanced  age,  or  by  reason  of  sickness 
are  unable  to  work — and  the  same  in  reference  to  children 
and  minors  of  either  sex — shall  be  supported  by  the  owners, 
the  latter  not  being  allowed  to  liberate  them,  unless,  they 
shall  provide  them  with  sufficient  means,  according  to  the 
judgment  of  the  attorney,  to  enable  them  to  maintain 
themselves  without  further  assistance." 

"  Chapter  VII :  Marriages  of  slaves. — The  owners  of 
slaves  should  avoid  all  illicit  intercourse  between  the  two 
sexes,  by  encouraging  marriage,  without  opposing  their 
marriage  with  the  slaves  of  other  owners  ;  in  which  case, 
if  the  estates  should  be  distant  from  each  other,  so  that  the 
consorts  should  not  be  able  to  comply  with  the  ends  of 
matrimony,  the  wife  shall  follow  her  husband,  being  bought 
by  the  owner  of  the  latter  at  a  price  fixed  by  two  umpires 
named  respectively  by  the  interested  parties ;  and  in  case 
of  desagreement,  by  a  third,  who  shall  be  judicially  ap- 
pointed. Should  the  owner  of  the  husband  decline  to 
purchase  the  wife,  the  owner  of  the  latter  shall  have  the 
privilege  of  purchasing  the  husband." 

"Chapter  VIII:  Obligations  of  the  slaves,  and  correc- 
tional penalties. — It  being  the  duty  of  the  owners  of  slaves 
to  feed,    instruct   and   employ    them    in    useful   labors, 


55 

proportionate  to  their  strength  and  sex,  without  aban- 
doning the  minors,  aged  and  infirm,  it  follows,  as  an 
obligation  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  to  obey  and  respect 
their  masters  and  overseers  ;  to  execute  the  tasks  and  la- 
bors assigned  to  them,  according  to  their  ability,  and 
to  venerate  them  as  fathers  of  the  family  :  therefore,  he 
who  shall  fail  in  any  of  these  duties,  may,  and  ought  to 
be  correctionally  punished  for  the  faults  he  may  commit, 
either  at  the  hands  of  the  owner  of  the  estate  or  of  the 
overseer,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence  or  its  gra- 
vity, by  imprisonment,  fetters,  chains,  or  the  stocks,  (in 
which  he  must  not  be  put  in  by  the  head,)  or  with  lashes, 
not  to  exceed  twenty-five,  and  with  an  instrument  that 
will  cause  neither  serious  contusion  nor  effusion  of  blood  ; 
which  corporeal  punishment  must  not  be  inflicted  on  a 
slave  by  any  other  person  than  by  his  owner  or  overseer." 

"  Chapter  IX  :  Infliction  of  greater  penalties. — If 
a  slave  commits  excesses,  misdemeanors  or  crimes  against 
his  master,  his  master's  wive  or  children,  overseer  or  any 
other  person,  for  the  punishment  and  check  of  which  the 
penalties  specified  in  the  preceding  chapter  should  not  be 
deemed  sufficient,  the  delinquent  being  apprehended  by 
the  owner  or  overseer  of  the  estate,  or  by  those  who  may 
be  present  at  the  time  of  the  committal  of  the  outrage, 
the  injured  party,  or  the  person  representing  him,  shall 
give  notice  to  the  nearest  magistrate,  who,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  owner  (unless  the  latter  should  desinterest 
himself  in  the  charge  by  abandoning  his  slave  to  the  course 
of  the  law),  but  in  all  cases  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
attorney  general,  in  his  character  of  protector  of  the 
slaves,  shall  proceed  to  a  full  investigation  of  the  case,  and 
sentence  the  delinquent  to  surfer  the  penalty  which  the 
law  inflicts,  according  to  the  gravity  of  the  offense,  but 
in  every  respect  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law,  as  would  be  applied  under  similar  circunstances  to 
free  transgressors.  And  when  the  owner  does  not  aban- 
don the  slave,  and  the  latter  is  sentenced  to  pay  damages 
to  a  third  party,  the  owner  shall  be  responsible  for  the 
same,  which  will  not  exclude  the  penalty  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  gravity  of  the  crime,  the  slave  shall  suffer, 
after  the  approval  of  the  district  court,  whether  the  penal- 
ty be  death  or  mutilation." 


] 


56 
»  # 

"  Chapter  X  :  Transgressions  of  the  owners  or  over- 
seers.-— The  owner  of  slaves  or  overseer  of  an  estate  who 
does  not  comply  with  the  regulations  of  this  letter  of  in- 
struction respecting  the  education  of  the  slaves,  their  food, 
garments,  moderation  of  labor  and  task,  attendance  to 
their  innocent  amusements,  supplying  of  rooms  and  infir- 
maries, or  who  abandons  minors,  the  aged  or  invalids 
unable  to  work,  shall  be  fined  $50  for  the  first  offence; 
for  the  second,  $100,  and  for  the  third,  $200;  which 
fine  shall  be  paid  by  the  owner,  even  in  cases  where  the 
overseer  alone  is  guilty,  and  may  not  have  the  means 
to  pay;  this  fine  will  be  distributed  in  three  parts,  to 
the  plaintiff,  the  judge,  and  the  fine-fund,  as  will  be  spe- 
cified'hereafter.  And  in  case  the  above  mentioned  fines 
should  not  produce  the  desired  effect,  and  there  should  be 
a  repetition  of  the  offense,  the  transgressor  will  be  pro- 
ceeded against,  and  greater  penalties  inflicted,  for  disobe- 
dience to  my  royal  commands ;  independently  of  the  more 
stringent  measures  which  may  be  resorted  to,  upon  proper 
evidence  as  to  the  gravity  of  the  case  being  submited  to 
me.  When  the  transgressions  of  owners  or  overseers  be  for 
excess  of  chastisement,  causing  grave  contusions,  effusion 
of  blood  or  mutilation,  besides  suffering  the  same  pecu- 
niary penalties  above  mentioned,  the  owner  or  over- 
seer shall  be  proceeded  against  criminally,  according  to 
law,  at  the  instance  of  the  attorney;  and  the  penalty  cor- 
responding to  the  offense  committed  shall  be  inflicted  upon 
the  offender  in  the  same  maner  as  if  the  injured  party 
were  free,  the  slave,  if  able  to  work,  shall  be  sold,  and 
the  amount  applied  to  the  fine  fund;  and  when  the  slave 
prove  unsaleable,  he  shall  not  be  returned  to  the  owner  or 
overseer  who  inflicted  the  excessive  chastisement,  but  the 
former  will  be  obliged  to  pay  a  daily  amount  fixed  by  law, 
for  his  maintenance  during  the  natural  life  of  the  slave, 
payable  by  thirds  in  advance." 

"Chapter  XI  :' Of  those  who  abuse  slaves. — As  the 
owners  and  overseers  are  the  only  persons  who,  with  the 
moderation  above  stated,  can  punish,  a  slave  correctional-' 
ly,  any  other  person  who  is  not  his  owner  or  overseer  shall 
not  abuse,  chastise,  wound,  or  kill  him,  without  incurring 
the  penalties  established  by  law  against  those  who  commit 
similar  outrages  or  crimes  on  free  persons;  such  cases  will 


57 

be  tried  and  prosecuted  at  the  request  of  the  owner  of 
the  slave  who  may  have  been  abused,  chastised,  or  killed; 
and,  should  the  owner  not  take  steps  to  bring  the  aggress- 
or to  trial,  the  attorney  general,  in  his  character  of  pro- 
tector of  slaves,  will  have  a  right  to  open  the  prosecution 
in  the  former  case,  even  if  there  should  be  no  plaintiff." 

"Chapter  XII :  List  of  slaves. — The  owner  of  slaves 
shall,  annually,  present  to  the  magistrate  of  the  city  or 
town  in  whose  jurisdiction  his  plantation  is  situated,  a 
list  signed  and  sworn  to,  stating  the  age  and  sex  of  each 
one,  so  thai;  it  may  be  entered  by  the  notary  of  the  corpo- 
ration, in  a  book  which  will  be  kept  specially  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  preserved  by  the  said  corporation  together  with 
the  list  presented  by  the  owner  ;  and  the  latter,  when- 
ever any  of  his  slaves  die  or  absents  himself  from  his 
estate,  shall,  within  three  days  thereafter,  notify  the  court 
of  such  death  or  absence,  so  that,  with  the  knowledge  of 
the  attorney  general,  the  fact  may  be  noted  down  and  all 
suspicion  of  a  violent  death  be  avoided.  And  should 
the  owner  fail  to  act  upon  this  requisition,  it  will  be  ne- 
cessary for  him  to  prove  either  that  the  slave  died  from 
natural  causes,  or  that  his  absence  is  not  fictitious,  in  de- 
fault of  which  proofs,  suitable  proceedings  will  be  institut- 
ed against  the  owner,  at  the  instance  of  the  attorney  ge- 
neral/' 

"  Chapter  XIII :  The  manner  of  discovering  the 
transgressions  of  oivners  and  overseers. — Owing  to  the 
distance  between  the  plantations  and  towns,  the  difficul- 
ties which  would  inevitably  result  from  allowing  slaves  to 
absent  themselves  without  a  pass  from  their  owners  or 
overseers,  on  the  plea  of  entering  their  complaints,  and 
the  just  provision  of  the  law  that  slaves  shall  not  be 
abetted,  protected  or  concealed,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
institute  some  means,  proportionate  to  the  circumstances, 
by  which  to  acquire  a  true  knowledge  of  the  treatment 
received  by  slaves  on  the  plantations;  one  of  these  being 
that  the  priests  who  visit  the  plantations  to  celebrate 
Mass  and  explain  the  Christian  doctrine,  shall  discover, 
either  from  their  own  observation  or  from  the  testimony 
of  the  slaves,  what  are  the  proceedings  of  the  masters  and 
overseers    towards    them;  and  how  far    the  general  in- 


1 


5S 

structions  are  obeyed,  so  that,  information  being  privately 
and  reservedly  given  to  the  attorney  general  of  that  sec- 
tion, city  or  town,  he  may  take  measures  to  ascertain 
whether  the  masters  and  overseers  fail  entirely  or  partial- 
ly to  their  respective  obligations.  This  notice  or  pri- 
vate information  thus  given  by  the  priest  in  virtue  of  his 
ministry,  or  acquired  from  the  complaint  of  the  slaves, 
does  not  make  the  owners  responsible  for  the  facts  alleged 
or  deprive  them  of  the  right  of  justification,  and  can  only 
authorize  the  attorney  general  to  propose  to  the  Court 
that  a  member  of  the  corporation,  or  any  other  respectable 
person,  be  appointed  to  investigate  the  charge;  and  this 
person,  after  making  the  necessary  investigation,  shall 
hand  his  report  to  the  Court,  who  shall  substantiate 
and  decide  the  case,  reporting  to  the  District  Court, 
according  to  the  laws  and  the  letter  of  instructions, 
and  admitting  the  right  of  appeal  in  those  cases  in  which 
the  right  is  recognised  by  law.  Besides  employing  these 
means,  it  would  be  advisable  to  select,  through  the  ma- 
gistrates and  wTith  the  concurrence  of  the  corporation 
and  the  approbation  of  the  attorney  general,  one  or 
more  persons  of  unblemished  character,  who  should  be 
appointed  to  visit  and  examine  the  plantations  three  times 
in  the  year,  in  order  to  discover  how  far  the  regulations 
laid  down  in  the  tetter  of  instructions  are  obeyed,  and  to 
report  the  result  of  their  investigations,  so  that  the  attor- 
ney general  being  duly  notified,  and  proper  evidence  of  the 
charges  being  furnished,  the  evils  may  be  redressed  ;  it 
should  moreover  be  deemed  a  commendable  action  in  any 
one  to  denounce  any  failing  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  requi- 
sitions expressed  in  all  or  any  of  the  preceding  chapters; 
and  the  informer  should  'be  assured  that  his  name  will 
always  remain  a  secret,  and  that  he  will  receive  the  part 
allotted  to  him  out  of  the  fine  which  has  already  been 
mentioned,  without  any  responsibility  attaching  to  him, 
except  in  the  case  where  it  is  fully  and  notoriously  proved 
that  the  charge  was  false  a^id  malicious.  And,  finally,  it 
is  in  like  manner  declared  that  the  magistrate  and  the 
attorney  general,  in  his  capacity  of  protector  of  the  slaves, 
shall  be  held  accountable,  in  the  Juicio  de  Residencies, 
fat  any  errors  of  omission  or  commission  into  which  they 
may  have  fallen  by  neglecting  to  take  the  necessary  aie  i- 


59 

sures  to  insure  the  desired  effect  of  my  Royal  intentions 
as  expressed  in  this  letter  of  instructions/'  , 

Chapter  XIV:  Depository  of  Fines. — In  the  cities  and 
villages  where  the  aforesaid  regulations  are  to  be  enforced 
and  where  justices  and  corporations  are  composed  of  Span- 
iards, there  shall  be  kept  in  the  Town  House,  a  coffer 
with  three  keys,  one  of  which  shall  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  Alcalde,  and  the  others  in  those  of  the  senior  ma- 
gistrate and  the  Attorney  General ;  this  coffer  shall  be 
destined  for  the  reception  of  the  products  of  the  penal 
fines  proceeding  from  cases  defined  by  this  letter  of  in- 
struction, and  the  amount  invested  according  to  the  direc- 
tions therein  expressed,  no  authority  being  given  to  either 
party  to  abstract  therefrom  one  single  maravicli  for  a 
different  purpose  or  object  than  the  legal  disbursements 
stipulated  in  said  instructions  ;  such  disbursements  must 
be  accompanied  with  a  certificate  signed  by  the  three 
key-holders  expressing  the  object  and  use  for  which  the 
money  has  been  withdrawn,  they  being  responsible  for  the 
funds  disposed  of  for  other  purposes,  in  case  that  for  some 
of  these  or  other  reasons  the  accounts  of  this  department 
should  not  be  approved  by  the  Intendant  of  the  provinces 
to  whom  they  must  be  remitted  annually,  accompanied  by 
vouchers  showing  the  amount  of  these  fines  and  their  in- 
vestment with  the  necessary  documents  to  prove  the  charges 
and  credits.  To  the  end  that  all  the  rules  prescribed  in 
this  letter  of  instruction  may  be  duly  and  punctually 
obeyed,  I  annul  whatsoever  laws,  decrees,  royal  orders, 
uses  and  customs,  which  are  opposed  to  them,  and  I  order 
my  Supreme  Council  of  the  Indies,  viceroys,  &c." 

The  above  ordinances,  forming  a  protective  and  hu- 
mane code,  such  as  was  never  made  by  other  nations  for 
the  most  favored  of  the  people,  was,  as  has  been  said,  and 
was  also  stated  in  its  preamble,  the  abridgment  and  com- 
pendium of  all  the  rules,  laws  and  dispositions,  which 
were  found  in  all  the  codes  existing  at  that  time.  From 
which  it  must  be  inferred,  that  the  treatment  and  le- 
gislation observed  in  regard  to  the  negroes  from  the  time 
of  their  importation  into  the  Spanish  colonies,  did  not 
correspond  with  their  condition  of  slaves  ;  far  from  'it, 
these  ordinances  appeared  rather  to  be  made  for  free  co- 
lonies, subject  to  reasonable  contract ;  the  more  so  as  the 
way  to   freedom  was  opened   by  means  of  industry  and 


1 


60 

individual  capacity,  to  all  those  negroes  who  desired  it. 
So  at  least  we  infer  from  Art.  Ill  of  the  aforesaid  ordi- 
nances, which  treats  of  the  Occupation  of  the  slaves,  where 
it  says  that  their  working  hours,  each  day,  shall  be  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  and  no  more,  and  that  they  shall  daily 
have  two  hours  to  themselves  which  time  they  may 
employ  in  manual  labor,  or  some  other  occupations,  the 
product  of  which  shall  be  for  their  own  benefit.  And 
this  without  taking  into  consideration  the  hours  which, 
on  each  feast  day,  the  industrious  negroes,  without  a 
manifest,  or,  at  least,  a  scandalous  disregard  of  the  pre- 
cept of  sanctifying  the  Sabbath  and  feast  days,  can  turn 
to  advantage  by  devoting  themselves  to  the  mechanical 
pursuits  taught  by  the  slaves  long  established  in  the  colo- 
nies to  those  who  have  more  recently  arrived  ;  some  by 
working  in  the  small  farms  which  their  masters  bestow  on 
the  most  deserving ;  others  by  raising  domestic  animals  at 
a  small  cost  which  they  can  afterwards  sell  at  remunera- 
tive prices  in  the  neighboring  estates  and  towns;  by  which 
means  a  sufficient  profit  can  be  made  and  capital  accumu- 
lated to  purchase  themselves  from  slavery  whenever,  they 
may  desire. 

I  have  seen  a  great  many  of  these  slaves  who  have 
become  free  through  their  own  exertions,  by  such  means 
as  are  here  mentioned,  and  they  are  favored  by  the  pro- 
tection of  the  law  on  this  matter,  which  accounts  for  the 
circumstance  of  the  freedom  of  no  less  than  one  third  of 
the  colored  population  of  the  island  of  Cuba,  among  whom 
many, are  landed  proprietors,  and  slave  owners. (1) 

The  spirit  of  the  foregoing  ordinances  which  were,  as 
I  have  already  stated,  a  compendium  of  all  the  laws  on 
slavery,  promulgated  from  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  until  that  date,  went  so  far  in  its  humane 
precautions  that  it  even  guaranted  a  sufficient  provision 
for  all  those  slaves  who  should  be  incapacitated  for  work. 
So  that  in  Chapter  VI  masters  are  positively  forbiden  to 
give  freedom  to  the  aged  or  disabled,  unless  they  at  the 
same  time  appoint  them  a  sufficient  income  to  cover  all 
their  ordinary  necessities  for  the  rest  of  their  lives. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  Chapter  VII,  in  what  re- 

(1)  At  this  present  time,  there  is  in  Havana,  in  Calle  Teniente  Rey 
n.  37,  a  boarding-house,  whose  proprietor  is  a  negro  woman,  a  domini- 
can,  who  has  many  slaves  in  her  service. 


61 

fers  to  keeping  together  those  who  are  united  bv  the 
holy  ties  of  matrimony  ?  The  supposed  power  which 
some  misinformed  philanthropists  have  fancied  to  exist 
among  propietors,  to  sell  at  their  option  either  of  the 
consorts,  and  keep  the  other,  and  which  has  so  inflamed 
the  imagination  of  romancers  and  poets, (2)  is  not  more 
worthy  of  credit  than  other  falsehoods  of  similar  origin, 
whose  tendencies  among  the  ignorant  can  be  easily  im- 
agined. 

The  fact  is  that  not  only  are  the  proprietors  unable 
to  sell  those  negroes  who  are  married,  without  selling 
both  husband  and  wife,  as  well  as  their  younger  children, 
so  that  wherever  they  go,  they  go  as  a  family;  but,  in 
the  case  of  a  marriage  between  negroes  of  different  es- 
tates, the  owner  of  the  male  is  obliged  to  buy  the  fe- 
male, except  when,  by  an  amicable  arrangement  between 
the  respective  proprietors,  the  owner  of  the  wife  buys  the 
•*  husband. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  the  power  of  inflict- 
ing arbitrary  punishment  on  slaves,  on.  the  plantations. 
Arguing  from  the  unquestionable  right  of  the  masters, 
and  even  of  the  overseers,  to  discover  and  punish  the  mi- 
nor offenses  of  the  negroes,  our  rivals  and  accusers  have 
discoursed  lengthily  on  this  subject,,  with  as  little  reason 
and  judgment  as  on  all  other  subjects  of  which  we  treat. 

On  the  supposition  that  proprietors,  authorized  by  the 
law  as  guardians  and  overseers  of  the  idiotic,  could  mal- 
treat them  at  their  will,  without  any  more  restraint  than 
their  own  interests  in  the  capital  invested  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  slaves,  these  persons  exaggerate  in  their  ar- 
guments the  severity  and  even  the  forms  of  the  punish- 
ments, representing  them  as  frightful  and  even  including 
among  them  the  scaffold,  all  with  the  sinister  purpose 
which  explains  itself;  for,  if  we  keep  in  view  Chap- 
ter VIII  of  the  beforementioned  ordinances,  which  refers 
to  punishments^  and  is  so  opposed,  in  spirit  and  letter,  to 
an  act  of  inhumanity,  the  injustice  of  these  declaimers  be- 
comes obvious. 

The  negroes,  in  their  transgression  of  lesser  degree,  such 

(2)  Among  many  of  their  productions  which  might  he  cited,  is  a  come- 
dv  called  El  Negro  sensible,  which  was  well  received,  particularly  in 
private  Theatricals,  and  which  gave  me  the  first  negative  ideas  on  the 
subject  which  I  am  now  treating. 


02 

as  intentional  absence  from  work,  petty  thefts,  quarrels 
from  which  no  grave  consequences  ensue,  disobedience  to 
their  masters,  etc.,  etc.,  could  not  be  taken  before  a  su- 
preme judge  or  magistrate,  or  even  punished  by  impri- 
sonment, because  they  would  thus  find  the  best  way  of 
eluding  work.  And  as  impunity  would  prove  an  encou- 
ragement to  more  serious  offenses,  leaving  aside  the  confu- 
sion which  would  be  introduced  by  a  mistaken  lenity  in 
punishment,  it  is  palpable  that  the  law  ought  to  concede, 
as  it  does  concede,  to  proprietors  that  advisable  permission 
to  punish  summarily  petty  offenses  and  misdemeanors. 

The  whip,  it  is  true,  is  applied  to  the  number  of  twenty- 
five  lashes,  with  great  severity,  for  were  the  punishment 
less  severe,  it  would  not  produce  the  desired  effect  on  the 
negroes  who  may  merit  it.  The  stocks  for  feet  and  hands 
is  also  a  common  punishment  on  plantations  in  our  colo- 
nies; but  sometimes  whipping  is  preferable,  when  the  want 
of  rationality  of  the  culprit  is  considered.  But  it  should** 
not  be  believed  that  the  whip  and  the  stocks  are  always 
in  action,  for  not  only  weeks  and  even  months  sometimes 
pass  on  every  plantation  without  a  sign  of  the  slightest 
castigation;  but  also  if  the  slave  who  is  to  be  punished 
can  find  a  white  man  to  intercede  and  answer  for  him, 
that  he  will  in  future  comply  with  his  duty,  which 
intercession  is  never  disregarded  by  any  white  man,  he  is 
pardoned  and  escapes  punishment  for  that  time,  until  he 
shall  commit  another  fault,  and  forever  if  he  amends  his 
conduct. 

Vulgar  prejudices,  increased  by  the'mystery  of  distances 
and  by  the  images  which  such  an  odious  name  as  that  of 
slavery  conjures  up,  have  seen  fearful  scenes  of  a  brutal 
domination,  where  in  reality  there  are  no  other  strictures 
than  those  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  labor  under 
the  auspices  of  evangelical  charity. 

There  are  also  ordinances,  and  not  .very  mild  ones, 
against  the  wrongs  committed  by  owners,  as  can  be  proved 
by  what  is  said  in  Chapter  XI.  And  it  must  fiot  be  sup- 
posed that  these  laws  are  merely  nominal  and  are  never 
really  applied,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of  the  negro's 
complaining  ;  for,  putting  aside  the  fact  that  the  negroes 
do  make  themselves  heard  with  all  the  persistence  which 
their  case  may  require;  they  have  a  protector  in  the  person 
of  the  attorney  general,  whose  obligation  is  to  watch  over 


I 


63 

them,  which  duty  he  performs  in  the  manner  explained 
in  Chapter  XIII. 

In  short,  if  the  ordinances  which  I  have  cited  and  com- 
mented on  were  not  the  complement  of  a  constant  legisla- 
tion, although  scattered  through  many  different  codes  and 
other  collections  of  laws,  so  long  as  they  are  an  evidence 
of  the  Christian  spirit  which  ruled  our  monarchs  and  le- 
gislators in  the  matter  of  slavery,  their  exposition  would 
prove  the  crucible  in  which  a  proceeding  which  is  directly 
opposed  to  slavery  would  be  purified  from  all  the  stigmas 
which  have  been  attached  to  it,  even  though  they  might 
date  from  centuries  back. 

It  is  true  that  the  said  ordinances  suffered  some  contra- 
dictions even  at  the  commencement  of  their  promulgation, 
owing  to  a  petition  preferred  to  His  Majesty  by  some 
proprietors  and  farmers  of  the  islands  of  Cuba  and  Santo 
Domingo,  and  of  Caracas  and  the  Continent,  from  which 
resulted  much  lucid  information,  from  very  able  and  re- 
liable authorities,  who,  although  desiring  the  suppression 
of  certain  articles,  ratified  all  those  which  referred  to  the 
kindness  of  humane  charity  with  which  the  negroes  should 
be  treated  in  all  the  Spanish  colonies. 

With  this  view,  and  as  in  the  course  of  time  these  co- 
lonies had  grown  and  improved  according  as  they  increas- 
ed in  importance,  the  institution  of  slavery  could  not  exist 
without  definite  rules  that  shoiild  determine  its  practise 
by  a  clear  jurisprudence.  Those  laws  by  which  it  was 
successively  governed  were  formed  on  the  basis  of  its  for- 
mer regulations,  the  last  of  which  was  that  now  in  force 
in  our  possessions  of  the  New  World,  and  which  forming 
an  integral  part  of  the  government  of  the  Island  of  Cuba, 
was  issued  and  promulgated  in  Havana  under  date  of 
14th  november  1842,  in  forty-eight  articles,  which  will  be 
inserted  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   IV, 


The  change  which  took  place  in  the  political  circumstances  of  the  New 
World  in  the  beginning  of  the  XIX  century,  suggested,  many  years  after- 
wards, some  alteration  in  the  legislation  concerning  the  slaves.  Sugges- 
tions to  this  effect  made  to  the  Spanish  government  by  the  interested 
parties.  Scrupulous  investigations  ordered  to  be  made  before  these  sug- 
gestions were  acted  upon. —  New  ordinances  for  the  regulation  of  the 
slaves,  issued  on  the  14th  of  November,  1842.  Extraordinary  circumstan- 
ces demand  some  strictness  in  the  Island  of  Cuba.  Conspiracy  of  the 
negroes  against  the  whites  in  said  Island,  plotted  and  conducted  by 
the  English  consul  :  an  official  record  of  the  process  is  inserted  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  assertion.  Exceptional  measures  then  dictated  for  the 
regulation  of  the  slaves.  They  are  not  practically  applied,  the  authorities 
being  swayed  by  the  impulse  of  humanity  that  governed  the  former  laws, 
which  after  all,  prevailed  at  that  time,  and  are  still  in  force. 


The  ordinances  copied  in  the  preceding  chapter,  which 
are  based  upon  the  most  charitable  and  protecting  spirit 
that  exists  in  the  human  mind,  not  only  as  applied  to  the 
slaves  coming  from  a  savage  country,  but  likewise  to  the 
Spanish  colonists,  were  made  at  a  time  when  the  number 
of  the  colored  population  in  our  possessions,  although 
large,  was  not  so  great  in  any  one  place  as  to  create 
apprehensions  of  a  general  insurrection. 

The  slave  population  of  Santo  Domingo,  which  was  the 
first  among  the  colonies  where  slave  labor  was  introduced, 
increased  to  such  a  degree,  and  the  greatness  of  our  colo- 
nies having  suffered  much  from  pirates  and  sudden  attacks- 
from  seditious  armed  hords,  the  industrious  owners  of 
slaves  on  the  island,  apprehending  some  unforeseen  cala- 
mity, sought  for  protection  from  the  king,  petitioning  that 
certain  clauses  of  this  Code  of  ordinances  should  be  revis- 
ed and  corrected,  and  others  revoked.  • 


66 

His  Majesty,  however,  did  not  accede  to  this  request 
until  he  had  inquired  into  the  causes  on  which  it  was 
founded;  and  upon  a  scrupulous  examination  by  the  most 
experienced  persons  having  been  made  on  the  subject,  such 
portions  of  the  regulations  as  were  most  objectionable 
and  dangerous  were  modified. 

There  were,  indeed,  many  objectionable  ordinances 
which,  on  annalysis,  appeared  still  more  so,  not  in  the 
light  of  charity,  but  in  consideration  of  the  character 
and  tendencies  of  the  people  for  whom  they  were  made. 
For  we  must  remember  that  Almighty  God,  in  His  in- 
scrutable wisdom,  has  made  a  great  difference,  of  mind 
and  understanding,  of  wiews  and  tendencies,  in  creatures 
of  different  races:  so  that  any  legislation  which  might 
be  excellent  for  a  set  of  men  united  by  common  senti- 
ment, degenerates  into  a  useless  and  even  prejudicial 
measure  when  those  men  for  whom  it  is  designed  differ 
widely  from  each  other. 

Besides,  when  we  consider  the  changes  which  succes- 
sively took  place  in  the  social  and  political  order  of  our 
colonies,  the  concentration  of  industrial  and  laboring  for- 
ces on  a  given  space  of  ground,  when  first  Santo  Do- 
mingo, and  afterwards  the  colonies  on  the  continent,  be- 
came independent  of  the  crown  of  Spain  ;  and  more- 
over, the  efforts  made  by  our  enemies  to  wrest  from  us 
the  little  we  were  able  to  preserve  in  the  Western  World: 
all  these  circumstances  justified  a  critical  and  equitable 
examination  of  these  laws,  and  also  the  change  operated 
in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  negroes  as  stated  in  the  pre- 
ceding regulations,  and  which  resulted  in  the  laws  for 
good  government  issued  in  Havana  the  14th  of  November, 
as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  articles  : 

1st.  Every  slave-owner  shall  instruct  his  slaves  in  the 
principles  of  the  Holy,  Roman,  Catholic,  Apostolic  faith; 
that  all  those  who  have  not  been  baptized  may  be  so 
baptized;  and  in  case  of  danger  of  death,  such  owner  shall 
baptize  them,  as  it  is  known  that,  in  such  urgent  cases, 
any  one  is  authorized  to  do  so. 

2d.  The  aforesaid  instructions  shall  be  imparted  at 
night,  after  working  hours,  and  immediately  afterwards 
the  slave  shall  recite  the  Rosary  or  some  other  devout 
prayers. 

3d.     On  Sundays  and  feast  days  of    obligation,  after 


\ 


67 

having  complied  with  theft  religious  duties,  the  owners  or 
overseers  can  employ  the  slaves  for  two  hours,  in  cleaning 
the  dwelling  and  out  houses  but  in  no  case,  for  a  greater 
length  of  time,  or  in  labors  of  the  plantation,  except  in 
harvest  time  or  when  delay  is  impossible;  on  such  days, 
they  shall  work  the  same  as  on  week  days. 

4th.  They  shall  take  care  that,  when  those  slaves  who 
are  baptized  have  arrived  at  the  proper  age,  they  receive 
the  sacraments,  whenever  our  Holy  Mother  the  Church 
'  commands  it,  and  alst)  whenever  they  may  require  them. 

5th.  They  shall  take  the  greatest  care  to  make  them 
understand  the  obedience  which  they  owe  to  the  author- 
ities, their  obligation  to  reverence  the  clergy,  to  respect 
the  whites,  to  behave  well  towards  each  other  and  to  live 
in  harmony  with  their  companions. 

6th.  Owners  shall  give  to  their  slaves  in  the  country 
at  least  two  or  three  meals  a  day,  as  they  may  think  best; 
such  meals  shall  be  abundant  and  substantial,  and  in  all 
respects  suitable  to  men  subjected  to  fatigue  and  hard  la- 
bor, and  must  consist  daily  for  each  negro  of  six  or  eight 
plantains  or  their  equivalent  in  sweet  potatoes,  yams,  yu- 
cas,  eight  ounces  of  meat  or  codfish,  four  ounces  of  rice, 
flour  or  other  nourishing  food.(1) 

7th.  The  owners  shall  supply  them  likewise  with  two 
suits  of  clothes  a  year,  in  the  months  of  December  and 
May;  each  suit  to  consist  of  a  shirt,  a  pair  of  pants  of 
nankeen  or  linen,  and  one  handkerchief;  and  in  December 
shall  be  added,  one  year  a  flannel  shirt,  and  the  next  a 
blanket. 

8th.  The  newly  born  and  very  small  children,  whose 
mothers  are  sent  to  labor  in  the  field,  shall  be  fed  with 
very  light  food,  such  as  broth,  pap,  milk  and  similar  sub- 
stances, until  they  are  weaned  entirely  or  have  finished 
teething. 

9th.  While  the  mothers  are  out  at  work  all  the  child- 
ren shall  remain  in  a  cabin  or  room,  which  on  every  plan- 
tation should  be  reserved  for  them,  which  shall  be  under 
the  special  care  of  one  female  slave  or  more,  as  the  owner 


(1)  The  uninformed  on  this  subject  must  not  be  alarmed  at  not  seeing 
bread  mentioned  as  an  article  of  food,  for  in  our  colonies  it  is  entirely  an 
article  of  luxury,  and  there  are  many  white  persons  of  means  who  never 
tasted  it. 


68 

or  overseer  shall  deem  necessary,  according  to  the  number 
of  children. 

10th.  If  the  children  should  fall  sick  during  their  early 
infancy,  they  shall  be  nursed  at  the  breasts  of  their  own 
mothers,  who  for  that  purpose  shall  be  exempt  from  field 
labor  and  occupied  in  domestic  duties  exclusively. 

11th.  Until  they  attain  the  age  of  three  years,  the 
children  shall  have  shirts  of  striped  gingham;  from  three 
to  six,  they  may  be  of  nankeen;  the  girls,  from  six  to  twelve, 
shall  wear  skirts  or  long  chemises,  aid  the  boys,  from  six 
to  fourteen,  trowsers;  and  after  these  ages  they  shall  dress 
like  the  adults. (1) 

12th.  '  In  ordinary  times  slaves  shall  work  nine  or  ten 
hours  daily,  the  master  arranging  these  hours  as  best  he 
may.  On  the  plantations,  in  harvest  time,  the  working 
hours  shall  be  sixteen,  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  the 
slaves  shall  have  two  hours  in  the  day  to  rest,  and  six  in 
the  night  to  sleep. 

13th.  On  Sundays  and  feast  days  of  obligation,  and  in 
the  hours  of  rest  during  week  days,  the  slaves  shall  be  al- 
lowed to  employ  themselves  within  the  plantation,  in  me- 
chanical labors,  the  product  of  which  shall  be  for  their 
own  benefit,  so  as  to  acquire  the  means  to  purchase  their 
freedom. 

14th.     The  owners  cannot  oblige  either  male  or  female  . 
of  over  sixty  years  or  under  seventeen,    to  do  full  work, 
nor  to  employ  slaves  of  either  of  these  classes  in  labors 
not  appropriate  to  their  age,  sex,  strength   or  constitu- 
tion. 

15th.  Those  slaves  who,  from  their  advanced  age  or 
from  sickness,  are  unable  to  work,  shall  be  maintained  by 
their  owners,  who  shall  not  be  permitted  to  give  them 
their  freedom  in  order  to  get  rid  of  them,  unless  by  provid- 
ing them,  with  sufficient  means  for  their  support  without 
need  of  other  assistance. 

16th.  In  every  plantation  a  room  shall  be  reserved  for 
the  purpose  of  keeping  the  implements  of  labor,  the  key 
of  which  shall  never  be  entrusted  to  a  slave. 


(1)  Our  own  sense"  of  decency,  and  not  that  of  the  negro,  dictated  these 
measures.  They  have  not  the  slightest  idea  of  modesty,  and  no  matter 
what  may  be  their  origin,  their  condition,  their  age,  or  state,  I  have  never 
seen  any  negro,  male  or  female,  who  took  the  least  trouble  to  go  dress- 
ed in  a  way  to  denote  the  slightest  shame  of  exposing  any  part  of  the 
body. 


69 

17th.  On  going  out  to  work,  each  negro  shall  be  fur- 
nished with  the  implements  which  he  needs  for  the  labor 
of  the  day;  and  on  going  back,  they  shall  be  taken  from 
him  and  put  away  in  the  depository. 

18th.  No  slave  shall  leave  the  plantation  with  any  im- 
plement of  labor,  and  much  less  with  arms  of  any  kind, 
unless  accompanied  by  his  master  or  overseer,  or  the  fami- 
ly of  either,  in  which  case  he  may  carry  his  cutlass,  and 
nothing  else. 

19th.  No  slave  shall  be  allowed  to  visit  the  slaves  of 
another  plantation  without  an  express  permission  from 
the  owners  or  overseers  of  both;  and  when  obliged  to  go 
to  another  plantation  or  leave  their  own,  they  shall  take 
a  writen  permit  from  the  owner  or  overseer,  with  the  des- 
cription of  the  bearer,  the  date  of  the  day,  month  and 
year,  expressing  the  place  to  which  he  is  going,  and  the 
time  at  which  he  must  return. 

20th.  Any  individual,  of  whatever  class,  color  or  con- 
dition he  may  be,  is  authorized  to  arrest  any  slave  he  may 
find  out  of  the  house  or  lands  of  his  owner,  unless  he  can 
show  the  written  pass,  which  he  should  carry,  or  which,  on 
being  presented,  shows  that  the  bearer  is  not  on  the  route 
which  said  pass  describes,  or  whose  leave  of  absence  has 
expired ;  he  shall  conduct  said  slave  to  the  nearest  plan- 
tation, whose  owner  shall  receive  him  and  keep  him  se- 
curely, so  as  to  return  him  to  his  owner  if  he  belong  to 
the  same  district,  and  if  not,  to  the  magistrate,  so  that  the 
latter  may  give  notice  to  the  interested  party,  in  order 
that  the  fugitive  slave  may  be  recovered  by  the  person  to 
whom  he  belongs. 

21st.  Owners  and  overseers  shall  not  receive  any  re- 
muneration for  any  fugitive  slaves  that  they  may  take  into 
custody  or  receive  according  to  the  foregoing  article,  that 
being  an  obligation  to  which  they  are  mutually  bound  to 
each  other,  and  which  tends  to  their  reciprocal  advantage. 
All  others  who  may  apprehend  fugitive  slaves  shall  be  re- 
munerated by  the  owner  with  the  amount  of  four  dollars 
for  each  one,  according  to  the  fugitive  slave  law. 

22nd.  The  owner  likewise  shall  be  obliged  to  pay  all 
expenses  for  food  and  medical  attendance,  in  case  it  should 
have  been  necessary,  and  all  others,  as  expressed  in  the 
same  fugitive  slave  law. 

23rd.     The  owners  shall  permit  their  glares  to  recreate 


70 

and  amuse  themselves  decorously  on  holidays,  after  having 
complied  with,  their  religious  obligations,  but  without 
leaving  the  plantation  or  joining  with  slaves  of  others  ; 
and  always  in  open  places  and  in  the  full  view  of  their 
owners,  overseers,  or  their  assistants,  until  sunset  or  until 
the  bell  rings  for  evening  prayer,  and  no  longer. 

24th.  Owners  and  overseers  are  particularly  requested 
to  watch  vigilantly  that  the  negroes  do  not  commit  excess 
in  drinking,  and  shall  not  permit  many  slaves  of  other 
plantations,  or  men  of  free  condition,  to  participate  in 
their  amusements. 

25th.  The  owner  shall  take  particular  care  to  construct 
for  unmarried  slaves  spacious  dwellings  in  a  ventilated 
and  dry  locality;  with  separations  for  each  sex,  well  closed 
and  secured  with  lock  and  key,  in  which  a  light  shall  be 
kept  burning  all  night;  and  where  their  means  shall  per- 
mit, there  shall  be  separate  rooms  for  each  married  couple. 

26th.  At  the  hours  of  retiring  for  rest  (which  in  long 
nights  shall  be  at  eight  o'clock  and  in  the  short  ones  at 
nine),  the  roll  shall  be  called  and  each  slave  shall  answer 
to  his  name,  so  that  only  the  surveyors  shall  remain  out- 
side; one  of  whom  shall  be  appointed  to  take  care  that  the 
others  keep  silence  and  to  inform  the  owner  immediately  of 
any  disturbance  on  the  part  of  his  companions  or  of  people 
from  other  plantations  or  of  any  other  important  ocurrence. 

27th.  There  shall  likewise  be  on  each  plantation,  a 
room  well  closed  and  secured  with  a  division  for  each  sex, 
as  also  two  more  rooms  for  contagious  diseases,  where  the 
slaves  who  may  fall  sick,  shall  be  attended  in  severe  cases 
by  physicians,  and  in  slight  cases,  where  domestic  remedies 
are  sufficient,  by  nurses  male  or  female;  but  always  with 
good  medicines,  proper  food  and  the  greatest  cleanliness. 

28  th  The  sick,  where  it  is  possible,  shall  be  placed  in 
separate  beds  with  bedding  consisting  of  a  straw  mattrass, 
mat  or  skin,  with  a  pillow,  blanket  and  sheet,  or  or  boards 
that  shall  be  sufficiently  convenient,  but  in  all  cases,  raised 
from  the  floor. 

29th.  The  owners  shall  endeavor  to  repress  all  illicit 
connection  between  the  sexes,  encouraging  marriages  and 
giving  to  the  married  means  of  living  together  under  the 
same  roof. 

30th.  To  accomplish  this  end  and  that  the  consorts 
may  fulfill  the  ends  of  matrimony,  the  wife  shall  follow 


the  husband  whose  owner  shall  buy  her  at  a  price  stipulat- 
ed between  the  two  owners,  or  else  by  umpires  appointed 
by  both  sides,  or  by  a  third  in  case  of  desagreement,  and  if 
the  owner  of  the  husband  should  not  wish  to  buy  the  wife, 
then  her  owner  shall  have  the  same  priviledge  as  the  for- 
mer, and  in  case  that  neither  of  the  owners  should  wish  to 
make  the  purchase,  then  both  husband  and  wife  shall  be 
sold  together  to  a  third  party. 

31st.  When  the  owner  of  the  husband  shall  buy  the 
wife,  he  shall  buy  with  her  all  her  children  under  three 
years  of  age,  as,  according  to  law,  their  mothers  are  obliged 
to  suckle  and  nurse  them  until  they  attain  that  age. 

32d.  The  owners  may  be  obliged  by  the  magistrates  to 
sell  their  slaves,  when  they  have  inflicted  ou  them  grave 
contusions,  or  commited  against  them  any  other  excesses 
contrary  to  humanity  and  the  rational  means  with  which 
they  ought  to  be  treated.  The  sale  shall  be  made  in  these 
cases,  for  the  price  named  by  umpires  or  by  a  magistrate 
in  case  one  of  these  should  refftse  to  act,  or  by  a  third  per- 
son in  case  of  desagreement,  but  in  case  there  should  be  a 
bjiyer  at  the  price  that  the  owner  exacts,  then  the  sale 
shall  be  made  in  his  favor. 

33d.  When  the  owners  at  their  own  option  and  for 
their  own  convenience  desire  to  sell  a  slave,  they  will  be  at 
liberty  to  fix  any  price  they  please,  according  to  their  es- 
timate of  his  value. 

34th.  When  a  slave  wishes  to  purchase  his  freedom, 
the  owner  must  not  refuse  to  fix  his  price,  on  payment  of 
at  least  fifty  dollars  by  said  slave  on  account  of  the  same. 

35  th.  The  slaves  whose  value  has  thus  been  fixed  shall  not 
be  sold  for  a  higher  price  than  that  previously  stipulated, 
and  with  this  condition  shall  pass  from  owner  to  ^purchaser. 
Nevertheless,  if  the  slave  wishes  to  be  sold  against  the 
will  of  his  master,  without  just  cause,  or  should  by  his 
bad  conduct  give  cause  to  be  sold,  the  master  may  add  to 
said  price  the  amount  of  the  excise  duty  and  the  cost  of 
the  deed  of  sale. 

36th.  As  the  benefit  of  this  privilege,  is  entirely  person- 
al, the  children  of  mothers  who  enjoy  it  cannot  be  partici- 
pants in  it,  and  they  can  be  sold  like  any  other  slave. 

37th.  Owners  shall  give  freedom  to  their  slaves  as  soon 
as  they  receive  their  price  as  legitimately  fixed;  which 
price  in  case  the  interested  parties  do  not  agree,  shall  be 


72 

named  by  umpires;  one  appointed  by  the  owner  of  the  slave 
or  in  his  absence  by  a  magistrate,  another  by  the  attorney 
general  in  the  name  of  the  slave,  and  a  third  by  the  same 
magistrate  in  case  of  disagreement. 

38th.  The  slave  who  shall  discover  and  make  known 
any  conspiracy  formed  by  any  of  his  class  or  by  any  per- 
sons of  free  condition,  to  disturb  the  public  peace,  shall 
receive  his  freedom  and  besides,  a  reward  of  five  hundred 
dollars.  If  the  informers  should  be  many  and  present  them- 
selves in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  the  last  ones  did  not 
know  that  the  disclosure  had  been  already  made,  then  all 
such  informers  shall  receive  their  freedom,  and  the  reward 
of  five  hundred  dollars  shall  be  devided  among  them 
all,  equally.  When  the  information  given  has  reference 
to  a  conspiracy  of  slaves  or  of  free  men  against  the  owner, 
his  wife,  children,  or  relations,  the  overseer  or  any  as- 
sistant on  the  estate,  owners  are  recommended  to  be  li- 
beral with  such  slaves  who  have  fulfilled  the  duties  of 
faithful  servants,  as  it  is  mitch  to  their  advantage  to  offer 
an  encouragement  to  loyalty. 

39th.  The  price  of  their  liberation  and  the  reward  al- 
luded to  in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  preceding  article, 
will  be  taken  from  the  amount  resulting  from  the  fines  im- 
posed  for  the  infraction  of  these  regulations,  or  any  others 
ordered  by  the  government. 

40th.  Slaves  also  shall  receive  their '  freedom  when  it 
shall  be  granted  them  in  a  will  or  by  another  legally  jus- 
tified means,  proceeding  from  an  honorable  and  praisewor- 
thy motive. 

41st.  Slaves  are  obliged  to  respect  and  obey  their  own- 
ers, overseers,  and  all  other  superiors,  and  to  fulfill  the 
tasks  set  them,  and  he  who  shall  fail  in  any  of  these  obli- 
gations shall  be  punished  by  whatever  person  may  be  at 
the  head  of  the  plantation,  according  to  the  delinquency 
or  excess  he  may  have  committed,  with  imprisonment, 
fetters,  chain  or  the  stocks,  in  which  he  shall  be  con- 
fined by  the  feet  and  never  by  the  head,  or  with  wipp- 
ing,  which  must  never  exceed  twenty-five  lashes. 

42nd.  When  a  slave  shall  commit  grave  transgressions 
or  some  crime  for  which  these  punishments  should  not  be 
deemed  sufficient,  he  shall  be  bound  and  carried  before  a 
magistrate,  so  that  in  the  presence  of  his  owner,  if  he 
should  not  give  him  up  entirely  to  justice,  or  before  the 


73 

attorney  general  if  he  should  do  so  ana  will  not  continue 
the  accusation,  he  may  be  proceded  against,  according  to 
law;  but  in  case  the  owner  should  not  have  given  him  up, 
and  the  slave  should  be  condemned  to  the  payment  of 
damages  and  costs  toward  a  third  party,  the  owner  shall 
be  responsible  for  the  same,  which  will  not  exempt  the 
slave  from  punishment,  corporeal  or  otherwise,  according 
to  the  offence  he  has  committed. 

43rd.  Only  owners,  overseers  or  stewards  shall  be  au- 
thorised to  punish  the  slaves  correctionally  and  with 
the  moderation  and  under  the  penalties  aforesaid;  and 
any  other  person  who  may  do  so,  without  the  special  order 
of  the  owner  or  against  his  will,  or  cause  him,  by  so  do- 
ing, any  other  injury  or  wrong,  shall  incur  in  the  penalities 
established  by  the  laws,  the  case  being  opened  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  owner,  or  in  his  absence  by  the  attorney  ge- 
neral as  protector  of  slaves,  if  the  transgression  should 
not  be  so  great  as  to  affect  the  public  good,  or  in  his  offi- 
cial character,  if  it  should  belong  to  this  latter  class. 

44th.  The  owner  in  charge  or  the  assistants  in  the 
plantations  who  may  desobey  or  infringe  any  of  these  rules, 
shall  be  fined  for  the  first  time  from  twenty  to  fifty  dol- 
lars; for  the  second  time,  from  forty  to  one  hundred,  and 
for  the  third,  from  eighty  to  two  hundred,  according  to 
the  importance  of  the  rule  infringed. 

45th.  The  fines  shall  be  paid  by  the  owner  of  the  plan- 
tation or  any  other  person  who  has  been  guilty  of  the  in- 
fraction, and  in  case  that  he  should  not  be  able  to  do  so 
for  want  of  means,  he  shall  suffer  one  day's  imprisonment 
for  every  dollar  that  he  has  been  fined. 

46th.  If  the  offense  of  the  owners  of  slaves  on  plan- 
tations, should  consist  in  excessive  corporal  punishment, 
causing  grave  contusions,  wounds,  mutilation,  or  more 
serious  injury,  besides  being  fined  as  stated,  the  person 
who  shall  have  committed  said  offense  shall  be  prosecuted 
criminally,  at  the  instance  of  the  attorney  general,  or 
officially,  so  as  to  impose  on  him  the  penalty  due  to  his 
misdemeanor;  and  the  owner  shall  be  obliged  to  sell  the 
slave,  if  he  be  still  saleable,  or  to  give  him  his  freedom 
if  he  should  be  dis&ble,d,  paying  him,  during  his  natural 
life,  a  daily  stipend,  wfyich  shall  be  determined  by  a 
magistrate,  for  his  food  and  clothing,  payable  monthly, 
in  advance. 


74 

47th.  The  fines  shall  be  applied  in  the  following  manner: 
one  third  of  thei*  amount  shall  be  given  to  the  magis- 
trate or  any  justice  who  may  impose  them,  and  the  other 
two  shall  be  applied  to  the  fund  which  shall  be  formed 
in  the  political  administration  of  each  district,  for  the 
cases  named  in  article  38,  for  which  end  they  shall  be  paid 
into  the  secretary's  office  of  said  district,  against  his  re- 
ceipt. 

48th.  The  lieutenant  governors,  magistrates  and  jus- 
tices shall  see  to  the  punctual  observance  of  these  regula- 
tions, and  they  shall  be  responsible  for  any  omission  or 
excess  in  their  carrying  out. 

Havanah,  etc.",(1) 

Besides  the  forty-eight  preceding  articles,  the  Captain 
General  of  Cuba,  in  accordance  with  and  at  the  recommen- 
dation of  the  Junta  de  Fomento,  issued  on  the  31st  of  May 
1844,  (that  is  to  say  two  years  after  the  promulgation  of 
the  preceding  ordinances,)  other  regulations  which  contain- 
ed more  stringent  measures;  but  this  was  not  done  with- 
out a  just  cause,  for  many  and  very  dangerous  elements 
had  combined,  at  that  time,  to  annihilate  our  authority 
in  those  possessions  which  are  still  recognized  with  such 
glorious  titles  in  the  western  hemisphere. 

On  this  point,  respecting  which  several  preventive  arti- 
cles in  the  ordinances  of  1842  had  already  become  notor- 
ious, such  as  those  offering  premiums  of  liberty  and  a  pe- 
cuniary reward  to  negroes  who  should  denounce  any  con- 
spiracy tending  to  disturb  public  order,  it  is  necessary  to 
give  some  explanation,  not  only  to  support  with  sufficient 
proofs  the  charge  which  I  have  already  preferred  against 
foreign  machinations,  but  also  to  justify  certain  appear- 
ances of  cruelty  and  rigor  in  the  regulations  of  1844.  I 
do  not  like  to  declaim,  nor  to  give  vent  to^ angry  feelings 
in  a  work  of  such  an  especial  nature  as  that  which  I  am 
writing,  and  which  I  wish  to  make  acceptable  to  all;  but 
it  would  not  be  proper  to  allow  to  pass  unnoticed  the 
charges  that  might  be  brought  against  the  harshness  of 
our  laws,  should  the  motives  for  such  harshness  remain 
.  unexplained. 

These  are  to  be  seen  in  several  legal  papers,  relating  to 
a  suit,  unfortunately  notorious,  which  was  formed  on  the 

(1)  Biblioteca  de  Legislation  de   Ultramar;  article  on   "  Slavery,"  vol.  Ill, 
page  136,  etc. 


I 


75 

island  of  Cuba  in  1841,  42  and  43,  on  account  of  a  vast 
conspiracy  set  on  foot  by  the  English  consul,  against  the 
existence  not  only  of  our  flag,  but  of  the  entire  white 
race  in  the  Antilles.  And  so  that,  in  an  ocurrence  i  f  such 
importance,  we  may  not  be  led  away  in  the  exposition  of 
deeds  and  the  logical  deductions  to  be  drawn  therefrom, 
we  will  leave  entire  the  whole  history,  such  as  it  was 
writen  by  the  supreme  judge  who  conducted  the  cause, 
as  will  be  seen  in  the  following  decision,  which  presents 
a  clear  view  of  the  case: 

Don  Francisco  Yllas,  Captain  of  cavalry,  Judge  and 
Recorder  of  the  Military  Commission,  etc.    * 

"This  committee  entrusted  with  the  investigation  of  the 
alleged  complicity  of  certain  foreigners  in  the  conspiracy  of 
the  blacks,  already  discovered,  they  having  been  accused  by 
the  criminals  themselves,  at  different  stages  of  the  impor- 
tant trial  of  said  case  now  in  progress,  and  which  has  been 
conducted  in  accordance  with  our  code  of  procedure  in  such 
cases,  to-day  presents  to  the  court  the  necessary  data  to 
properly  appreciate  the  facts  elicited  respecting  each  of  the 
accused,  and  to  pass  judgment  thereon,  with  that  impar- 
tial and  even-handed  justice  so  emminently  its  attribute. 

"  On  giving  my  opinion  on  a  subject  so  grave  and  at 
the  same  time  of  such  immense  importance  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  Metropolis,  I  may  be  permitted  to  trace 
cursorily  the  history  of  the  facts  which  have  led  to  these 
proceedings,  beginning  with  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Da- 
vid Trumbull  to  discharge  the  duties  of *  H.  B.  M.'s 
consulate,  in  Havana.  This  fanatical  abolitionist  had 
already  made  known  his  opinions  and  principles  in  a 
work  published  in  the  year  1840,  entitled  "  Travels  in  the 
West  Indies;"  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  in  the 
communication  directed  by  lord  Palmerston  to  Mr.  Acton, 
on  the  17  of  March  1842,  on  complaints  being  made  by 
our  Government  against  the  conduct  of  the  ex-consul, 
the  English  minister  should  say  that  the  book  writen  by 
that  functionary,  and  his  unequivocal  opinion  in  favor 
of  the  liberty  of  the  slaves,  recommended  him  and 
fitted  him  for  the  office  which  he  hel$  in  this  Island  : 
as  if  men  blinded  and  inflexible  in  their  principles,  of 
turbulent  spirit,  and  capable  of  committing  any  outrage, 


-    76 

were"  the  most  fitting  to  preserve  •  harmony  between  two 
friendly  and  allied  nations. 

"It  is  therefore  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  with  these 
antecedents,  the  ex-consul  should  have  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that,  in  this  country,  he  could  preach  publicly  the 
.  emancipation  of  slavery,  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
the  political  state  of  the  Peninsula,  at  that  time  so  full  of 
lamentable  errors,  favored  him  particularly,  he  should  rush 
on  his  dreadful  mission  without  fear,  and  promote  the 
triumph  of  his  doctrines  by  converting  the  most  precious 
of  the  Antilles  into  a  scene  of  cruelty  and  rapine,  under  the 
governement  of  an  ignorant  and  ferocious  race.  And,  tru- 
ly, gentlemen,  if  we  pause  to  consider  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  our  country,  the  classes  which  compose  its  po- 
pulation, the  immense  number  of  slaves,  and  the  means 
which  that  man  put  in  play  to  bring  about  the  insurrec- 
tion of  this  terrible  mass,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge 
that  by  a  miracle  only  we  have  been  able  to  save  our- 
selves from  such  imminent  peril. 

"  The  government  of  the  Island,  notwithstanding  the 
difficulties  of  its  position,  caused  by  the  events  which  had 
changed  the  political  aspect  of  the  Peninsula,  watched 
very  closely  the  steps  of  the  agents  of  the  ex-consul,  and 
on  the  1st  of  December  1842,  it  arrested  Jose  Michel,  a 
free  black,  whose  case  was  tried  in  the  military  commis- 
sion, before  an  able  and  practical  attorney  general,  who, 
by  dint  of  zeal,  activity  and  efficiency  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duties,  suceeded  in  discovering  the  origin  of  those 
evils  which  we  now  lament.  In  fact,  in  that  celebrated 
suit,  it  was  thoroughly  proved  by  all  the  means  that  the 
law  recognizes,  that  the  project  of  the  conspiracy  existed, 
and  that  its  author  and  principal  promoter  was  Mr.  David 
Trumbull. 

"  This  is  proved  by  many  facts,  some  of  which  are  pub- 
licly known.  They  have  been  witnessed  by  the  whole 
Island,  and  their  marked  tendencies  require  no  expla- 
nation. The  first  step  taken  by  him  after  his  appoint- 
ment was  to  embark  in  the  English  steamer  Venezuela,  for 
.the  island  of  Demerara.  He  engaged  to  pay  the  expen- 
ses to  said  island  and  back  of  four  free  negroes  named  as 
follows  :  Jos6  dej  Carmen  Lamozano,  Felix  Rodriguez, 
Jose  del  Carmen  Reitia,  and  Trinidad  Baldemoa,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Emigration  Society,  at  that  time  esta- 


77 

blished  in  that  port,  his  object  being  that  they  should 
visit  the  British  Islands,  and  on  their  return  to  this  coun- 
try they  should  give  to  their  countrymen  an  exalted  idea 
of  them.  The  persons  who  informed  in  a  legal  manner 
and  gave  the  particular  circumstances  attending  these  facts 
bear  a  character  of  veracity  entirely  reliable,  viz:  the  Span- 
ish vice-consul  at  Jamaica,  where  the  travellers  made  a 
stay;  the  vice-consul  of  the  United-  States,  at  the  same 
place;  the  captain  of  the  steamer  that  conveyed  them  thi- 
ther, through  his  boatswain;  Don  Jose  Cabalzas,  merchant, 
who  was  commissioned  to  furnish  them  with  passports,  who 
however  excused  himself  from  doing  so;  and  even  the  se- 
cretary of  H.  B.  M.'s  consul,  Mr.  Francis  Ross  y  Coguen, 
W/ho  moreover  certified  in  his  deposition  the  very  important 
circumstance  that  Trumbull  attempted  to  have  these  in- 
dividuals embarked  on  board  of  a  man-of-war,  without 
passports;  and  the  only  reason  why  he  did  not  do  so  was 
because  the  commander  would  not  receive  them;  which 
step,  on  the  part  of  Trumbull,  clearly  shows  how  little  he 
cared  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  our  laws,  and  how  ready 
he  was  to  infringe  them  when  they  offered  any  obstacle  to 
the  accomplishment  of  his  wild  and  criminal  design.  These 
facts  are  attested  to  in  the  indictment  and  shown  in  the 
report  of  the  attorney  general. 

"  The  governor  being  apprised  of  the  departure  of  the  four 
emissaries,  gave  the  necessary  order  for  their  apprehension 
on  their  return  to  the  Island;  and  thanks  to"  the  vigilance 
of  the  authorities  of  this  city,  the  arrest  of  the  negro  La- 
morano  was  effected.  This  Lamorano  is  a  man  of  under- 
standing and  of  extraordinary  sagacity,  and  possessed  of 
intelligence  not  very  common  among  men  of  his  class. 
What  might  not  have  been  the  effect  produced  in  this  coun- 
try by  the  preaching  of  these  negroes,  holding  forth  to  the 
slaves  an  exalted  idea  of  the  advantages  enjoyed  by  the 
colored  poeple  in  the  islands  they  had  just  visited? 

"Almost  at  the  same  time  when  that  expedition  of  cons- 
pirators left  Havana,  other  agents  of  the  ex-consul  scoured 
the  Island  and  prepared,  so  to  speak,  the  ground  on  which 
the  travelers  were  afterwards  to  conduct  their  operations. 
The  council  should  bear  in  mind  the  arrival  of  the  mulatto 
Luis  Gigant  in  this  place,  about  the  middle  of  the  year 
1841;  the  steps  taken  by  him  to  engage  in  the  plan  of  the 
uprising  of  the  free  colored  people;    the  offers  he  made 


78 

*  them  in  tne  name  of  those  who  sent  him,  the  expectation 
that  he  raised  in  them,  as  to  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
enterprise,  a*nd  lastly  the  meetings  they  held,  the  opini- 
ons there  discussed,  the  mandates  given  to  the  members  to 
make  proselytes  in  the  interior,  and  to  prepare  the  minds 
of  the  slaves  for  the  approaching  outbreak  and  for  the  ex- 
termination of  their  masters,  over  whose  dead  bodies  they 
would  raise  the  edifice  of  their  liberty. 

"  Bat  undoubtedly  the  efforts  of  his  emissaries  appeared 
very  ineffectual  to  the  ex-consul,  for  in  November  of  the 
same  year,  1841,  we  find  him  again  in  this  city  endeavour- 
ing to  convince  some  negroes  of  the  right  they  had  to 
be  free.  Information  having  been  received  by  the  Govern- 
ment, that  he  had  come  without  a  passport  from  his  Ex- 
cellency the  Captain  General,  warning  was  given  him  that 
he  must  return  to  Havana,  and  that  he  must  not  be  per- 
mitted to  stop  at  Cardenas  or  on  any  of  tj*e  plantations 
which  lay  on  his  way,  as  he  intended  to  do.  Don  Eugenio 
Balben,  proprietor  of  the  hotel  at  which  he  put  up,  testifies 
that,  during  the  time  he  remained  there,  none  but  free  ne- 
groes and  slaves  entered  his  room:  George  Becher  and  Fran- 
cisco Huerta,  known  as  Adams,  (men  who,  according  to  the 
testimonies  of  the  attorney  generals  Don  Ramon  Gonzales 
and  Don  Mariano  Fortun,  figured  as  chiefs  and  active  pro- 
motors  of  the  conspiracy  in  this  place,)  attracted  attention 
by  their  frequent  visits.  Guillermo  and  Susano,  slaves  of 
Don  Juan  Torres,  also  declare,  in  fos.  41  and  43,  that  they 
were  sent  for  by  him  to  impress  it  on  their  minds  that  they 
ought  to  be  free,  the  same  as  the  negroes  of  Providence; 
the  object  of  his  journey  being,  as  he  said,  to  make  himself 
acquainted  with  the  manner  in  which  they  were  treated 
in  this  province  and  in  the  district  of  Cardenas,  which  he 
intended  to  visit;  and  that  they  must  have  confidence  in 
the  means  he  would  furnish  them  ,to  obtain  their  free- 
dom. The  former  of  these  negroes  added  that  he  had 
told  them  that  an  armed  force  would  arrive  from  Santo 
Domingo,  previous  to  which  some  emissaries  would 
come  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  them  in  what  they 
must  do.  Let  it  not  be  said  that  these  three  negroes 
were  not  reliable,  and  may  have  deposed  falsely,  for, 
in  addition  to  the  citations  of  folios  67  and  573,  trans- 
lated by  the  government  interpreter,  Don  Martin  Fort, 
they  agree  with  the  testimony  of  the  free  negro  Miguel 


79 

Michel,  who  was  fully  acquainted  with  all  the  circumstan- 
ces. Trumbull  himself  has  furnished  some  facts  which  tally- 
equally  with  both  these  declarations,  and  which  can  leave 
no  doubt  in  regard  to  their  truthfulness  besides  being  con- 
firmed by  the  papers  found  in  his  possession  when  arrest- 
ed in  Guibara,  having  reference  to  these  same  negroes  of 
Forbs,  with  whom  he  had  held  conferences  in  this  place  in 
the  manner  we  have  just  seen. 

"  Thus  it  was  that  this  man-  commenced  his  career  by 
spreading  the  seeds  of  insurrection  until  he  was  most  for- 
tunately checked  in  his  progress  by  the  order  which  reliev- 
ed him  of  his  office,  an  order  which,  although  it  disconcert- 
ed his  plans,  as  shown  by  the  letters  from  his  agents  taken 
from  Michel,  did  not  in  the  least  diminish  the  audacity 
and  energy  with  which  they  were  conceived  and  put  in  exe- 
ecution.  From  the  Island  of  Providence,  where  he  went 
to  reside,  we  were  astonished  to  see  him  cross  over  to  the 
port  of  Gibara  in  a  sloop  entirely  manned  by  negroes  as  if 
careless  to  conceal  the  object  of  his  undertaking.  Observe 
how  well  his  partisans  were  initiated  in  all  he  proposed  to 
do,  it  being  stated  in  one  of  the  letters  found  upon  Mi- 
chel, that  he  had  returned  to  the  Island  with  the  deter- 
mination to  revenge  himself  or  die  in  the  attempt. 

"  It  would  seem  that  he  really  had  come  to  this  resolution, 
for  after  having  been  arrested  by  order  of  the  Captain  Gen- 
eral, and  whilst  in  charge  of  an  officer  to  be  conveyed 
from  Holguin  to  Gibara,  he  failed  in  the  respect  due  to 
the  authority,  and  abusing  the  kindness  and  forbearance 
shown  to  him  by  his  conductor,  he  forced  himself  into  the 
plantation  La  Caridad  where  he  held  forth  to  the  negroes 
the  right  they  had  to  be  free,  and  wrote  threatening  let- 
ters to  their  owner  hoping  that  fear  for  his  personal  safety 
would  compell  him  to  give  them  their  freedom. 

"  When  the  representative  of  a  powerful  nation  thus  en- 
tices and  stimulates  ignorant  ynen,  ever  ready  to  shake  olf 
the  yoke  of  slavery,  to  deeds  of  open  rebellion  ;  when  the 
promise  of  future  welfare  with  the  acquisition  of  honors, 
and  affluence  is  held  out  to  free  negroes,  and  when  the  at- 
tainment of  those  blessings  is  represented  as  easy,  what 
must  be  the  inevitable  result  of  such  proceedings  ?  The 
numerous  cases  submitted  to  its  decision  have  made  the 
answer  painfully  evident  to  this  committee.  The  slaves  of 
hundreds  of  plantations  are  coalescing  and  preparing  to 


80 

rise  in  rebellion;  the  free  negroes  employed  in  the  coun- 
try are  inciting  and  animating  them  in  their  resolutions, 
and  those  living  in  towns  are  resolving  in  their  meetings 
the  ruin  of  the  country  and  the  extermination  of  thou- 
sands of  families,  who,  impressed  with  gratitude  now  bless 
the  hand  that  saved  them." 

It  has  been  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  me  to  find  in  the 
foregoing  document  a  cause  of  gratitude  towards  the  Eng- 
lish government,  for  having  removed  a  consul,  who  so  in- 
vidiously and  unworthily  fulfilled  his  duties  in  the  Island 
of  Cuba.  Justice  and  an  unalterable  desire  of  conciliation 
oblige  me  to  make  this  acknowledgment,  whilst  a  sincere 
regard  for  our  national  honor,  by  which  the  legal  proceed- 
ings in  this  deplorable  affair  were  influenced,  have  induced 
me  to  insert  the  preceding  document  before  adverting  to 
the  following  decree,  so  that  the  reasons  which  dictated  its 
promulgation  may  be  better  understood  and  appreciated. 

"  1st.  The  owners  of  slaves  destined  to  agricultural  la- 
bors shall  see  that  they  are  instructed  in  the  principles  and 
mysteries  of  our  holy  religion,  by  the  overseer,  the  steward, 
or  administrator  of  each  plantation,  that  they  comply  with 
the  precepts  of  the  Church,  and  that  they  receive  the  sa- 
craments when  so  ordained. 

"  2nd.  Said  owners,  using  in  all  cases  the  full  power 
granted  them  by  law  over  their  slaves,  as  the  only  means 
to  keep  them  in  subordination,  shall  order  that  through  the 
said  substitutes  they  shall  receive  their  food,  clothing  and 
necessary  attendance  during  sickness  :  and  also,  that  said 
slave's  shall  be  punished,  when  they  commit  any  offence,  by 
whipping  or  imprisonment  to  a  degree  that  they  may  con- 
sider in  accordance  with  the  instructions  received  from  the 
master;  who  in  no  case  shall  whip  the  slaves  himself,  and 
to  whom  it  is  recommended  in  all  punishments  to  incline 
rather  to  clemency  than  to  excessive  rigor. 

"  3rd.  They  shall  direct  said  administrators,  overseers, 
and  stewards,  first  :  that  every  evening  after  prayers,  the 
doors  be  closed  upon  the  slaves  until  day  light  the  next 
morning,  and  that  a  guard  be  kept  going  the  rounds 
of  the  plantation,  headed  by  a  white  man.  Second:  that 
the  administrator,  overseer  or  steward,  does  not  leave  the 
plantation,  on  any  day  of  the  year,  except  on  business  con- 
cerning the  owner,  or  by  his  express  permission.  Third: 
that  any  colored  person  either  free  or  slave,  or  any  white 


81 

man  of  suspicious  appearance  who  may  be  found  on  the 
plantation  without  presenting  a  letter  or  paper  signed  by 
the  person  by  whom  he  is  sent,  shall  be  arrested  and  sent 
to  the  district  judge,  and  the  same  shall  be  done  to 
pedlars.  Fourth  :  that  the  subordinates  of  the  plantation 
shall  vigilantly  watch  the  conduct  of  the  free  negroes  who 
are  employed  on  them,  and  shall  be  held  strictly  responsi- 
ble for  their  conduct. 

"  4th.  They  shall  order  the  said  administrators,  over- 
seers or  stewards,  that,  in  case  of  any  murder  or  affray 
or  any  disturbance  showing  symptoms  of  insurrection  on 
the  plantation,  they  shall  immediately  notify  the  Captain 
of  the  district  that  he  may  proceed  to  make  the  correspond- 
ing summary  of  the  case. 

"  5th.  They  shall  be  careful  to  employ  none  but  whites 
as  cartmen,  muleteers,  or  messengers  and  generally  in  any 
capacity  in  which  it  is  necessary  to  go  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  plantation. 

"  6th.  There  shall  be  in  each  plantation  a  number  of 
white  employees  equivalent  to  one-twentieth  of  the  num- 
ber of  colored  laborers. 

For  the  carrying  out  of  the  above  regulations,  made  by 
the  board  of  protection,  sanctioned  and  issued  by  the  Cap- 
tain General  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  the  following  instruc- 
tions issued  the  31st  of  May  1844,  were  ordered  to  be  ob- 
served : 

"1st.  All  emancipated  negroes  on  this  Island  whose  term 
of  civil  and  religious  instruction  shall  have  expired  and 
are  therefore  free,  shall  be  taken  care  of  by  the  government 
who  shall  provide  them  tlie  means  of  embarking  and  leav- 
ing this  country  in  the  manner  and  form  that  Her  Majesty, 
who  shall  be  informed  on  the  matter,  shall  direct.  (i) 

"  2nd.  The  number  of  negroes  without  trade,  property, 
or  the  means  of  subsistence  existing  in  the  Island  shall  be 
ascertained,  and  all  such  shall  be  held  by  the  courts  as 
vagrants  and  hurtful  to  society. 

(1)  The  word  emancipated  is  applied  to  all  such  negroes  as  are  seized 
at  sea  or  at  the  time  of  landing  by  the  forces  or  agents  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  are  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  government,  who,  to 
effect  their  instruction  in  labor  and  in  christian  civilization,  places  them 
with  persons  of  laborious  habits;  these  persons,  in  consideration  for  the 
benefit  they  derive  from  the  labor  of  said  negroes  pay  a  monthly  sum  into 
the  treasury. 


82 

"  3rd.  After  a  given  length  of  time,  all  tree  negroes 
coming  from  another  country  shall  be  expelled. 

"  4th*.  The  prohibition  of  landing  negroes  either  slaves 
or  free,  shall  be  punctually  observed. 

"  5th.  The  local  authorities  shall  keep  a  strict  watch 
over  all  negro  lessees. 

"  6th.  The  prohibition  to  colored  people  to  hold  meetings 
shall  be  rigorously  observed,  and  any  outrage  they  may 
commit  against  the  whites  shall  be  severely  punished. 

"7th.  On  no  account  shall  negroes  be  employed  in  drug 
shops,  and  much  less  to  be  allowed  to  make  up  even  the 
sim-plest  prescription. 

"8th.  All  taverns  in  the  country,  which,  according  to 
the  investigation  and  report  of  the  local  authorities,  are, 
owing  to  their  localitv  or  want  of  means,  of  no  service  to 
the  public,  shall  be  suppressed  after  I  have  been  advised 
and  given  my  sanction. 

"  9th.  The  sale  of  liquors  is  prohibited  in  the  coun- 
try, both  by  the  wholesale  and  retail,  and  is  only  al- 
lowed in  towns. 

"10  th.  The  owners  of  plantations  adjacent  \o  each  other 
shall  be  recommended  to  empk)y  clergymen  of  known  vir- 
tue to  instruct  their  negroes  in  our  Holy  Religion  as  well  as 
in  the  duties  of  morality,  obedience  and  submission  imposed 
upon  them  by  society  and  the  laws  of  the  land/' 

For  the  sake  of  clearness,  and  ever  with  the  end  of  his- 
torically and  legally  demonstrating  that  the  civil  status  of 
the  fiegro  in  the  Spanish  possessions  of  the  New  World  is 
not  that  of  slavery,  which  name  has  been  applied  to  it 
with  so  little  foresight  and  suchmotorious  injustice,  it  is 
necessary  to  note  that  the  above  regulations  were  transi- 
tory, and,  indeed,  that  the  most  objectionable  portions  of 
them  were  never  carried  into  effect. 

The  ordinary  laws,  such  as  they  existed  before  the  pro- 
mulgation of  said  measures,  were  prompt  in  their  action 
and  sufficient  always,  to  inflict  on  criminals  with  singu- 
lar lenity  the  punishment  which  they  deserved.  After- 
wards, the  calm  which  followed  that  great  agitation  inspir- 
ed confidence  and  restored  things  to  their  natural  current, 
so  that  the  expulsion  of  the  emancipated  negroes  which 
had  been  decreed  was  never  enforced;  nor  were  there  any 
complaints  or  suits  instituted  against  free  negroes  for  va- 
grancy 


83 

»  A  few  months  having  elapsed  after  the  punishment  of 
the  ringleaders,  which  was  slight,  indeed,  compared  with 
the  magnitude  of  their  crime (1)  every  thing  returned  to  its 
former  state;  mild,  civilizing,  and  supremely  humane,  in 
conformity  'to  the  former  rules  and  regulations  herein 
transcribed.  And  the  results  corresponding  eminently  to 
the  pious  tendency  shown  in  the  spirit  of  our  legislation 
relative  to  negroes,  became  patent  in  the  progressive  eman- 
cipation of  slaves,  owjng  to  the  advantages  they  enjoy  on 
the  estates  of  the  country,  in  the  domestic  labor  in  the 
houses  of  their  employers  or  overseers,  or  in  industrial 
occupations  in  the  cities.  These  beneficial  results  were 
further  secured  by  the  new  acts  emanating  from  the  autho- 
rities for  the  purpose  of  rendering  effective  the  protec- 
tion which  our  legislators  had  in  view  on  establishing  a 
fundamental  rule  as  regards  this  institution  and  in  behalf 
of  the  weak.    ■ 

To  demonstrate  the  proposition  set  forth  as  a  funda- 
mental idea  in  these  pages,  viz  :  that  the  civil  state  of 
the  negroes  in  the  Spanish  colonies  is  not  that  of  slavery, 
which  name  has  been  erroneously  applied  to  it,  and  is 
not  conformable  to  facts,  the  legal  proofs  set  forth  in  the 
preceding  chapter  as  well  as  in  this,  would  suffice.  Never- 
theless, as  unfair  reasoning  sophistry  might  say  that  laws 
are  one  thing  and  their  application  another,  when  mate- 
rial interests  are  raised  above  their  spirit;  in  order  to  dis- 
pel any  doubts  and  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  true 

(1)  In  all  countries,  sedition  and  treason  are  punished  with  the  greatest 
penalties,  and  our  code,  like  that  of  all  the  nations  who  properly  value  the 
peace  of  society,  punishes  these  crimes  with  death;  notwithstanding  all  this 
only  three  of  the  ringleaders  were  executed  on  tins  occasion;  and  though  it 
is[to  be  lamented  that  among  them  a  mind  gifted  with  poetic  talent  perished, 
I  refer  to  Placido,  a  mulatto  who  apart  from  this  intellectual  privilege 
possessed  no  other  virtue,  for  he  was  quarrelsome,  intemperate,  dissolute 
and  vicious,  whenever  an  occasion  presented,  it  cannot  he  denied  without 
injustice  and  opposition  to  truth  and  to  our  procedings  that  wonderful  cle- 
mency and  extraordinary  prudence  were  displayed  in  the  decision  of 
the  court.  The  crime  was,  indeed,  of  the  greatest,  since  it  purposed  no 
less  than  the  murdering  of  all  the  white  people  of  Cuba  first  and  after- 
wards of  Porto  Rico,  so  that  the  negroes  might  then  take  possession  of 
both  Islands.  But  considering  the  defective  judgment  of  those  who  wish- 
ed to  realize  such  a  bloody  programme  and  the  facility  with  which  this 
plot  could,  without  inflicting  capital  punishment  on  many  of  the  criminals, 
the  severity  of  the  court  was  limited  to  the  execution  of  those  three  indi- 
viduals, and  the  transportation  of  some  two  or  three  dozens  of  theinost 
guilty  to  the  Peninsula  there  to  be  imprisoned.  Our  procedings,  of  cour- 
se were  as  usual  food  for  slander,  but  my  statements  are  essentially  true. 


84 


state  of  things  such  as  it  will  be  presented  to  the  views  # 
and  understanding  of  all  persons  who  choose  to  judge  them 
for  themselves,  as  I  have  done,  I  think  it  expedient  to 
amplify  this  idea  by  an  impartial  statement  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  compulsory  labor  of  the  negroes  is  carried  on 
in  our  possessions  of  the  New  World,  and  what  are  the 
results  of  the  practice. 


CHAPTER  V. 


The  reason  why  the  legislation  and  proceedings  of  the  Spanish  Co- 
lonies are  taken  in  this  work  as  the  type  of  the  legislation  and  pro- 
ceedings concerning  the  slavery  of  negroes. — How  the  free  people  of 
color  live  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  where  slavery  exists,  and  in  San- 
to Domingo  where  it  is  abolished. — Domestic  service  by  hire  in  said  coun- 
tries, both  of  slave  and  free  servants. — Other  classes  of  service  public  and 
private. — The  slaves  on  the  plantations. — Character  of  their  services,  and 
comparison  with  the  services  of  the  white  people  in  free  nations. — Means 
which  negro  slaves  have  of  redeeming  themselves  from  labor  in  the  Span- 
ish possessions. — Corporeal  punishment :  its  legislation  and  application. — 
The  punishment  inflicted  on  the  negro  slaves  and  that  applied  to  white 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  some  of  the  European  nations,  especially  in  Eng- 
land, compared. — Legal  means  which  delinquent  slaves  have  to  escape 
excessive  chastisement. — Trustees  for  the  protection  of  slaves  :  their  au- 
thority and  its  application. — Right  of  the  slaves  to  change  their  master 
for  just  cause  and  in  accordance  with  law. — Rules  which,  in  the  Spanish 
possessions,  govern  in  such  cases. — Some  historical  considerations  on  the 
wrongs  to  which  the  beniflcent  institution  of  negro  labor  has  been  sub- 
jected. 


In  the  preceding  chapters  I  have  intentionally  refrained 
from  noticing  any  law,  ordinance  or  regulation  concerning 
slavery  or  the  treatment  of  the  blacks,  in  any  country 
where  the  institution  existed  or  still  exists,  except  such 
as  had  reference  to  the  Spanish  colonies.  For,  as  we 
were  the  first  who  introduced  slavery  in  the  New  World, 
though  with  such  modifications  as  the  progress  of  civil- 
ization required,  and  with  the  twofold  and  commenda- 
ble purpose  of  redeeming  the  negro  from  his  barbarous 
condition,  and  of  relieving  the  Indians  from  the  labor 
imposed  on  them,  to  which  they  were  neither  accustom- 
ed nor  adapted,  I  think  that  i^  is  with  our  own  laws, 
and  not  with  those  of  other  nations,  that  we  should  res- 
pond to  the  universal  reprobation  with  which  the  social 
evil  is  viewed,  which  has  caused  and  is  still  causing  such 
violent  agitation  among  civilized  nations. 


86 

I  have  equally  abstained  from  alluding  to  the  prac- 
tical manner  in  which  the  abolition  of  slavery  has  been 
attempted  in  all  the  colonies,  and  carried  out  in  some, 
as  this  would  have  led  me  into  a  disquisition  on  the 
justice  and  the  opportuneness  of  the  efforts  which  have 
been  made,  and  moreover,  as  since  the  time  we  began  to 
be  considered  a  great  nation  (which  we  certainly  were  in 
the  sixteenth  century)  we  have  been  constantly  accused 
of  inhumanity. 

It  has  been  proven  by  an  impartial  analysis  and  com- 
parison that  we  were  not  the  least  distinguished  for  hu- 
manity in  the  laws  referring  to  slavery,  and  in  their 
practical  enforcement,  any  foreign  laws  which  I  might 
here  insert  would  only  tend  to  establish  rivalries,  en- 
courage disputes  and  recriminations,  and  produce  discus- 
sions contrary  to  the  spirit  of  impartiality  and  modera- 
tion which  presides  over  this  work. 

Such  as  we  have  always  proved  ourselves  to  be,  and 
in  our  own  light  as  founders  of  African  slavery  in  Ame- 
rica, I  desire  that  we  may  be  considered  and  judged; 
taking  as  a  principle  that  we  have  organised  in  a  per- 
manent manner  the  labor  of  these  agents  of  universal 
wealth,  and  that  we  have  abolished  the  former  odious 
system  of  slavery,  as  is  fully  shown  by  the  existing  re- 
gulations, which,  if  duly  analized,  will  be  found  efficient 
to  serve  as  a  basis  for  another  code  of  laws  to  be  uni- 
versally adopted  and  applied  by  all  nations  owning 
slaves;  and  if  better  or  more  complete  regulations  can 
be  found  among  other  nations,  there  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  adopted,  upon  the  interested  parties 
coming  to  a  general  understanding,  and  agreeing  as  to 
the  necessity  of  a  general  reform. 

Premising  this  in  order  to  justify  our  intentional  omis- 
sion, and  to  give  a  greater  independence  to  the  character 
of  this  work,  let  us  boldly  enter  at  once  upon  the  matter 
which  is  to  be  considered  in  this  chapter,  viz:  the  manner 
in  which  the  laws  are  interpreted  in  their  practical  ap- 
plication amongst  the  Spanish  proprietors  or  lessees  of 
the  colonial  possessions,  in  regard  to  the  respective  rights 
and  duties  of  themselves  and  their  laborers. 

As  in  this  work,  we  could  not,  without  being  guil- 
ty of  a  serious  omission,  neglect  to  mention  the  state 
of  the  free  negroes,  who,  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  amount 


87 

to  more  than  one- third  of  the  colored  population,  in  Porto 
Kico  to  one-half,  and  in  Santo  Domingo  the  whole,  it 
will  be  well  for  me  to  give  at  once  the  result  of  the  obser- 
vations which  I  have  made  during  the  \  eriod  of  thirteen 
years,  which  I  have  devoted  to  a  constant  study  of  the 
subject,  passing  the  time  for  this  purpose  in  the  cities  and 
smaller  towns,  but  more  frequently  in  the  country.  And 
in  case  my  testimony  should  not  be  sufficient  to  produce 
on  the  public  mind  the  desired  effect,  I  appeal  to  the  tes- 
timony of  all  persons  who  have  studied  the  question  im- 
partially, with  the  firm  conviction  that  they  will  corrobo- 
rate all  my  statements. 

First  of  all,  it  will  be  necessary  to  observe  that  the  cus- 
toms of  the  free  negroes  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Kico,  where 
slavery  exists,  and  where  social  discipline  is  maintained  by 
the  restraints  of  a  good  government,  differ  greatly  from, . . 
and  are  superior  to  those  of  Santo  Domingo,  where  an 
undue  political  liberty  has  introduced  among  the  negroes 
habits  of  indolence  and  vagrancy,  which  are  almost  incor- 
rigible. The  former  beino;  accustomed  to  work  ever  since 
their  eyes  first  opened  to  the  light  of  civilization,  whether 
they  be  Bozales  who  have  been  fraudulently  introduced 
into  said  islands  to  be  employed  in  forced  labor,  and  have 
subsequently  been  liberated,  or  Creoles  born  of  free  parents, 
or  those  who,  having  been  slaves  from  their  birth,  and 
being  freed  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  law,  general- 
ly exceed  the  proper  bounds  of  their  liberty,  labor  does  not 
degenerate  among  them  as  it  does  among  the  negroes  of 
Santo  Domingo,  and  of  all  other  places  where  slavery  has 
been  abolished. 

Owing  to  the  nature  of  the  tropical  climate,  which  is  so 
bountiful  as  to  afford  spontaneously  the  necessary  susten- 
ance to  man,  and  so  mild  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  any 
great  precautions  against  intemperature  of  the  weather, 
the  negroes  being  left  entirely  to  their  own  will,  without 
check  or  curb,  naturally  return  to  their  primitive  state  and 
abandon  all  manner  of  employment.  In  the  island  of  Santo 
Domingo,  after  its  re-annexation  to  Spain,  I  ftave  seen  them 
lounging  the  livelong  day  in  their  miserable  cabins,  in 
which  they  kept  some  pieces  of  raw  beef,  which  they  only 
half  cooked  for  their  meals  when  pressed  by  hunger,  while 
at  a  short  distance  from  the  door  they  had  a  few  plantains 
and  yucas  growing.    Satisfied  with  these  provisions,  which 


88 

can  be  procured  by  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  labor  each  week, 
these  miserable  creatures  look  with  indifference  on  the 
good  wages  offered  to  them  as  an  inducement  to  employ 
their  strength  for  the  benefit  of  the  country,  and  they  in- 
voke the  respect  due  to  their  condition  as  freemen  when 
endeavors  have  been  made  to  persuade  them  to  improve 
their  condition  by  working.  "With  a  piece  of  meat,"  they 
answer,  "a  handful  of  plantains  and  a  young  negress  we 
can  live  comfortably  enough."  And,  moreover,  they  do  not 
clothe  their  bodies  more  than  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  sake  of  common  decency,  while  their  children  live  and 
grow  up  in  the  state  of  nudity  in  which  they  were  born, 
until  instinct  teaches  them  to  cover  themselves,  and  then, 
not  through  any  feelings  of  shame,  but  solely  in  imitation 
of  their  parents.  Such  is  the  life  of  the  free  negroes  in 
Santo  Domingo,  with  very  few  exceptions,  and  such  it  will 
continue  to  be  until  this  state  of  vagrancy  shall  be  ended 
by  a  good  law  of  immigration,  and  by  the  municipal  ordi- 
nances which  will  naturally  be  made  when  our  authority 
shall  be  firmly  established,  and  other  races  shall  people 
the  island. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  the  sad  state  of  the  negroes  in 
this  part  of  the  West  Indies  is  an  exceptional  case  which 
has  been  caused  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  to  which 
this  already  extinct  republic  has  always  been  subjected; 
for,  although  the  adjacent  republic  of  Hayti,  on  the  sama 
territory,  has  pretensions  to  a  superior  state  of  civilization, 
all  those  who  have  carefully  considered  the  subject  well 
know  how  ridiculous  that  fictitious  civilization  really  is, 
and  what  constant  persuasions  and  encouragements,  from 
the  consuls  and  other  foreign  agents,  have  been  necesary  to 
maintain  their  civil  laws,  in  order  to  prevent  their  political 
existence  from  degenerating  into  a  state  similar  to  that 
of  the  negroes  of  St.  Domingo.  In  order  to  confirm 
ourselves  in  this  opinion,  we  have  only  to  consider  what 
has  happened  in  the  rest  of  the  of  the  colonies  of  the  West 
and  Lucaya  Isles,  as  well  as  in  the  European  colonies  of 
the  Westerrf  Continent,  where  negro  slavery  has  been 
violently  abolished.  I  have  also  visited  some  of  these,  and 
at  St.  Thomas,  for  instance,  where  though  not  very  fertile, 
there  are  nevertheless  found  some  excellent  lands  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  sugar  cane  and  other  lucrative 
productions,  not  a  negro  laborer  is  to  be  had,  except  at 


89 

very  high  wages,  and  then  the  proprietors  by  whom  they  are 
hired  run  the  risk  of  being  left  with  the  work  half  done. 
They  prefer  to  gain  their  living  by  the  loading  and  unload- 
ing of  vessels,  as  being  a  task  less  arduous  and  limited  to 
stated  hours,  although  it  is  for  that  very  reason  a  less  pro- 
fitable occupation.  There  are  some  who  will  not  even  do 
this,  except  when  they  are  in  actual  want  of  a  few  reals, 
prefering,  while  they  last,  to  live  upon  cheap  fruits  and 
vegetables. 

The  freedom  of  the  .negroes  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  is 
very  different,  for  such  a  state  of  things  is  expressly  forbid- 
den by  the  laws.  In  the  coiintry,  where  the  sugar  ad  coffee 
plantations  are  the  focus  of  slavery  and  the  inexhaustible 
sources  of  wealth,  but  few  free  negroes  are  to  be  found, 
either  because  they  cannot  procure  work  by  the  day  on  the 
plantations,  or  because  they  do  not  choose  to  engage  in 
agricultural  employements  under  the  supervision  of  over- 
•  seers  and  superintendents. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  no  free  colored  families  reside 
in  the  country,  for  they  certainly  do,  and  some  of  them 
own  large  plantations  and  negro  slaves;  this  is  especially 
the  case  in  Porto  Rico  where  this  class  of  the  population 
is  very  numerous  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  territory. 
But  where  there  are  such  families  labor  is  not  abandoned 
through  indolence,  and  much  less  as  unnecessary,  as  all 
are  subject  to  the  police  regulations  and  to  the  provisions 
of  an  excellent  government  by  which  vagrancy  is  prohibi- 
ted, as  I  have  already  stated;  for  which  reason  their  state 
of  civilization,  and  consequently  their  customs  are.  similar 
to  those  of  the  white  population,  with  whom  they  live  in 
social  intercourse  and  constant  communication. 

But  with  the  exception  of  this  obligation  to  work,  the 
kind  of  employment  being  nevertheless  left  to  their  own 
option,  and  of  the  moderate  restraint  which  is  imposed  on 
their  habits,  the  free  negroes  are  in  every  other  respect  as 
independent  as  the  whites,  and  the  law  protects  them  in  all 
the  civil  rights  which  are  common  to  them  and  to  us.  In 
the  cities  they  are  at  full  liberty  to  be  in  the  public  streets, 
-  even  at  the  most  unseasonable  hours  without  further  res- 
trictions than  those  which  public  order  imposes  on  all 
good  citizens;  they  have  their  tertulias  and  balls  just  the 
same  as  the  whites,  and  no  authourities  have  ever  refused 
them,  without  just  cause,  permission  to  keep  up  the  danc- 


• 


90 

ing,  with  due  decorum,  within  doors  from  sunset  to  sunrise 
on  their  particular  festivals,  whenever  such  permision  has 
been  respectfully  solicited. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  thougt  that  free  negroes  of  either  sex, 
who,  having  no  other  means  of  support,  engage  their  servi- 
ces to  a  family  of  whites,  are  placed  upon  the  same  footing 
and  bound  to  perform  the  same  duties  as  other  servants 
in  countries  where  slavery  never  existed.  What  less  could 
be  exacted  from  a  domestic  who,  besides  clothing,  food  etc, 
receives  liberal  wages,  and  perquisites  amounting  to  as 
much  more  ? 

-Yet  this  is  far  from  being  the  case  with  the  hired 
negroes;  he  who  has  a  situation  as  cook  will  refuse  even 
to  sweep  a  parlor  or  to  do  the  slightest  work  which  does 
not  belong  to  what  he  considers  his  exclusive  obligations 
in  the  kitchen,  even  though  he  may  be  offered  his  weight 
in  gold,  while  the  negress  who  acts,  as  laundress  would  not 
think  of  going  into  the  kitchen  to  attend  to  the  fire,  in  the 
absence  of  the  cook,  even  if  the  house  was  in  danger  of 
being  burned  dpwn. 

Owing  to  this  state  of  things,  which  is  unfortunately 
prevalent  in  the  colonies,  that  branch  of  the  service  is  in- 
sufferable, as  no  family  can  be  even  indifferently  served 
without  employing  at  least  three  domestics,  while  the 
wages  and  board  of  each  of  these  amount  monthly  to  no  less 
than  twenty-four  dollars, v  or  say,  for  the  three  servants, 
seventy  two  dollars;  which  in  almost  any  country  would 
be  sufficient  to  support  the  family  itself. 

In  addition  to  this,  let  it  be  considered  that,  when  these 
servants  have  fulfilled  their  obligations,  according  to  their 
own  judgment,  though  generally  not  as  they  ought  to  have 
done,  they  imagine  that  they  are  free  to  go  whithersoever 
they  please,  and,  according  to  their  customs  they  certainly 
possess  that  right,  and  scarcely  ever  return  to  their  master's 
until  bed  time;  now  I  may  venture  to  say  that  this  class, 
who  are  so  much  pitied  by  those  who  know  nothing  of 
their  life  and  customs,  would  not  change  places  with  the 
most  favored  among  the  laboring  classes  in  Europe,  or  even 
with  many  persons  of  the  middle  classes  who  are  making 
such  an  outcry  in  their  favor. 

This  description  of  the  domestic  service  of  the  free  ne- 
groes applies  equally  to  that  of  the  slaves  who  are  hired 
out  and  of  those  who  serve  their  owners,  except  in   the 


91 

• 

matter  of  going  out  at  their  will,  for  in  this  respect  the 
latter  are  subject  to  certain  restrictions,  and  so  are  the 
hired  slaves,  whenever  their  owners  have  so  stipulated 
with  the  employers. 

Negroes  of  this  class,  both  male  and  female,  who  hire 
themselves  out  to  such  persons,  who,  having  no  slaves  of 
their  own,  are  compelled  to  submit  to  the  inconvenience  of 
this  most  expensive  kind  of  service,  stipulate  with  their 
owners  that  on  payment  of  certain  monthly  or  weekly 
instalments  they  shall  be  free  to  dispose  of  their  time  and 
labor,  so  that  whatever  they  may  earn  over  and  above  that 
amount  shall  be  exclusively  their  own. 

Such  is  the  general  practice  which  is  carried  out  more 
fully,  when  the  slaves  on  their  own  account  and  at 
their  own  risk  go  out  as  public  hackrhen,  or  as  workmen 
or  porters  on  the  docks  and  in  the  custom  houses;  and  it 
can  positively  be  affirmed  that  those  who  have  followed 
such  employments  for  two  or  three  years  and  have  not  then 
purchased  their  freedom,  have  not  chosen  to  do  so  for 
particular  reasons,  or  because  actuated  by  more  ambitious 
views;  as  by  continuing  in  their  occupations  for  a  length 
of  time  they  can  acquire  means  not  only  to  buy  their  free- 
dom but  also  to  procure  lands,  by  the  product  of  which 
they  may  live  in  comfort  without  having  to  work  much; 
and  in  so  doing  they  are  generally  sucessful,  especially  in 
the  capitals  of  both  islands,  and  in  other  parts  of  the 
coast  where  trade  is  active. 

Those  who  follow  trades  and  other  profitable  business, 
such  as  tailors,  shoemakers,  segar  makers  etc.,  of  which 
there  are  great  numbers,  and  those  who  apply  themselves 
to  music  and  learn  to  perform  on  some  instrument,  can 
also  speedily  acquire  means  to  obtain  this  freedom,  on 
paying  the  required  amount  by  instalments  as  is  ordered 
in  the  regulations. 

In  short,  any  slave  in  the  large  cities,  or  in  domestic 
service  in  the  small  towns,  can  obtain  his  freedom  in  a  few 
years  through  his  own  industry  and  good  conduct. 

I  cannot  say  as  much  of  those  employed  on  the  plan- 
tations, for  their  labor  is  more  valuable  and  they  have 
fewer  "advantages  than  the  others.  Their  daily  tasks  never 
last  less  than  ten  hours  and  they  sometimes  exceed  that 
when  extra  labor  is  required  at  particular  seasons.  I  can 
easily  believe   that    they  find   this  labor  any   thing  but 


92 

agreable  when  it  is  at  first  imposed  upoun  them,  being 
accustomed  to  a  life  of  independence  in  their  native 
land ;  and  that  it  is  owing  to  this  that  there  have 
been  occasional  cases  of  suicide  among  the  bozal  negroes 
recently  imported  into  the  islands.  This  is  one  of  the 
charges  which  can  justly  be  made  again ts  us  by  civiliza- 
tion, for  it  is  true  that  these  unfortunate  beings  when 
newly  arrived,  owing  to  their  ignorance  of  our  customs, 
cannot  appeal  to  the  authorities  against  any  ill  usage 
which  they  may  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  overseers 
charged  with  superintending  their  labor.  Yet  I  trust  I 
may  be  allowed  to  say  that,  when  that  period  of  acclima- 
tation  has  been  passed  through,  there  will  be  found  noth- 
ing inhuman  nor  even  extraordinary  in  the  labor  imposed 
on  those  negroes,  as  all  our  laboring  classes  are  obliged 
to  work  at  least  ten  hours  daily. 

On  this  point  I  disagree  entirely  with  the  abolitionist, 
for,  having  entered  into  an  impartial  and  equitable  inves- 
tigation of  the  respective  condition  of  free  and  slave  field 
laborers,  without  taking  their  feeling  into  consideration, 
and  looking  only  on  the  material  side  of  the  question,  I 
have  found  that  the  latter  are  treated  no  worse  than  the 
former,  and  that  to  compensate  for  their  privation  of  the 
privilege  of  working  or  not,  at  their  option,  they  are.  pla- 
ced beyond  the  terrible  ravages  of  want  which  have  pro- 
duced such  distress  in  the  freest  and  most  enlightened 
nations  of  the  Old  World. 

I  remember  the  time  when,  in  Castile,  farm  laborers  could 
only  earn  ten  cents  a  day,  which  was  all  they  had  to  sup- 
port themselves  and  those  who  were  dependent  on  them, 
most  of  them  having  families;  to  pay  the  house  rent,  to 
procure  clothing  and  to  lay  by  forthe  time  when  they  should 
be  out  of  employment.  And,  besides,  in  cases  af  sickness, 
which  could  not  but  be  very  frequent  in  such  a  wretched 
state  of  existence,  medicines  have  to  be  procured  out  of 
that  same  sorry  pittance,  though  medical  attendance  could 
be  obtained  at  the  expense  of  the  municipality. 

Those  who  have  lived,  as  I  have,  in  Simancas  or  in  any 
other  town  of  the  province  of  Valladolid,  in  the  years  1846 
and  1848,  will  not  find  the  slightest  exageration  in  the 
picture  which  I  have  drawn.  Those  laborers  went  out  to 
the  field  to  work  at  daylight,  that  is,  in  summer  from  three 
to  four  in  the  morning,  and  did  not  give  up  work  until 


93 

sunset,  which  in  those  latitudes  and  at  that  season  is  at  eigth 
o'clock  if  not  later.  During  the  course  of  the  day  and  at 
meal -times,  they  rested  two  alternate  hours;  and  thus 
there  remained  to  them  nine  hours  out  of  each  twenty 
four,  for  rest,  consequently  they  work  quite  as  much  as 
the  negroes  in  harvest  time,  and  no  less  than  the  same 
negroes,  all  the  year  round. 

Though  the  negroes  on  the  plantations  cannot  obtain 
their  freedom  with  such  ease  as  the  others,  they  never- 
theless have  opportunities  which  they  can  turn  to  ac- 
count, especially  when  they  have  proved  themselves  in- 
telligent, honest  and  submissive,  for  then  they  %are  gene- 
rally separated  from  the  laborers,  and  employed  in  do- 
mestic service  by  the  overseers,  or  even  by  the  master, 
in  which  situation  they  can  easily  acquire  means  to  buy 
their  freedom  by  economizing  and  saving  the  gratuities 
and  presents  lavished  upon  them. 

Some  of  my  readers  will  suppose  that  very  few  can 
obtain  their  freedom  in  this  manner,  as  the  number  of 
household  servants  must  necessarily  be  limited.  But  this 
argument,  which  may  naturally  be  set  forth  by  persons 
unacquainted  with  the  countries  to  which  I  refer,  can 
be  refuted  at  once  by  any  one  who  has  any  knowledge 
of  the  matter,  with  the  demonstration  of  the  unlimited 
number  of  servants  who  are  retained  on  the  estates  and 
in  the  dwellings  of  their  owners,  owing  to  the  fact,  which 
has  been  already  mentioned,  that  no  servant  is  ever  em- 
ployed in  more  than  one  particular  occupation,  nor  even 
in  that  one  in  the  service  of  two  different  persons.  When 
the  owner  of  large  estates  has  a  numerous  family,  and 
owns  plenty  of  negroes,  the  number  of  servants  of  both 
sexes  who  are  employed  in  the  household  would  be  con- 
sidered fabulous,  each  individual  in  the  family  having  one 
exclusively  in  his  service;  and,  where  there  are  infants  to 
be  nursed,  the  wet-nurses  take  with  them  their  husbands 
and  little  ones,  and  though  these  remain  in  perfect  idleness, 
they  are  not  obliged  to  return  to  their  labor  in  the  fields 
so  long  as  they  behave  themselves  properly. 

It  is  also  customary,  on  the  plantations,  to  teach  some 
trade  or  bestow  a  small  plot  of  ground  to  such  negroes  as 
may  desire  either;  and  by  these  means  they  all  have  the 
opportunity  to  earn,  by  their  extra  labor,  sufficient  to  pay 
the  price  of  their  freedom,  in  instalments,  which  the  pro- 


94 

prietors  have  no  right  to  decline,  as  has  been  seen  in  some 
articles  of  the  regulations. 

With  regard  to  the  punishments,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  destroy  the  prejudices  which  exist  on  the  matter  in 
those  places  where  this  institution  is  known  only  theoreti- 
cally. In  order  to  condemn  the  punishment  of  slaves, 
poets  and  novelists  have  spared  no  extravagance  nor  mon- 
strosity in  their  comedies  and  dramas,  and  in  narratives 
of  cruelty  which  are  manifestly  absurd,  as  also  in  novels 
abounding  in  impossibilities. 

When  a  youth,  I  read  some  of  these  calumnious  works, 
which  wete  expressly  designed  to  inflame  the  public  mind 
against  negro  slavery,  and  I  own  that  at  one  time  I  shared 
the  common  prejudices;  believing  that  the  principles  of 
humanity  and  justice  ought  to  prevail  over  all  interested 
motives.  At  that  time  when  I  was  as  ignorant  as  the  worst 
among  them,  I  had  often  inwardly  applauded  the  apos- 
trophe, as  destructive  as  it  was  eloquent,  which  resounded 
through  the  world:  Preserve  the  principles,  and  let  the 
colonies  perish.  Subsequently,  when  I  had  entered  the 
military  service,  and  even  long  before  visiting  America, 
my  opinions  in  this  matter  were  materially  modified. 

In  any  collective  body  of  men  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
common  labor  or  any  other  end,  whose  members  are  not 
taken  from  the  higher  elasses  of  society,  but  from  the  ig- 
norant masses,  it  would  be  absurd  to  apply  the  ordinary 
codes  of  laws  for  the  punishment  of  crimes  and  offenses 
that  might  be  committed;  for  such  application  would  speed- 
ily cause  the  dissolution  of  said  organization,  and  the  jails 
and  prisons  would  be  filled  with  criminals  whose  offenses 
might  have  been  punished  in  some  other  manner  which 
would  interfere  neither  with  their  services  nor  with  their 
labor. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  it  was  customary,  until  very 
recently,  in  the  Spanish  militia,  to  punish  soldiers  who 
had  been  guilty  of  misdemeanors,  by  making  them  run  the 
gauntlet  or  by  inflicting  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  lashes, 
instead  of  sending  them  to  prison.  For  this  reason  also 
punishment  by  the  lash  was  continued  in  the  Portuguese 
army  until  1856,  twenty-one  years  after  it  had  been  abol- 
ished in  Spain;  and  it  is  perhaps  on  this  account  that 
the  English  still  inflict  it  with  such  severity  on  their  sold- 
iers and  sailors,  I  myself  having  witnessed  the  death  of  an 


95 

individual  of  the  auxiliary  legion,  in  the  city  of  Lugo, 
during  the  civil  war  in  Spain,  who  suffered  the  penalty  of 
eight  hundked  lashes,  to  which  he  had  been  sentenced, 
the  total  number  of  lashes  being  inflicted  on-  his  body, 
although  he  expired  long  before  the  completion  of  his  pun- 
ishment. 

And  if  freemen  are  subjected  to  this  treatment  in  highly 
civilized  nations,  experience  having  demonstrated  that, 
without  such  severity,  discipline  and  subordination  could 
not  be  maintained  in  their  armies,  why  should  it  be  a  mat- 
ter of  wonder  that  the  most  humane  codes  in  the  world 
authorize  the  penalty  of  lashes,  to  be  applied  with  moder- 
ation to  negroes  when  they  deserve  punishment,  knowing 
that  any  other  mode  of  correction  would  be  useless,  be- 
cause unintelligible  to  them  in  their  all  but  irrational 
state? 

It  is  necessary  that  all  discussions  with  regard  to  these 
matters  should  be  governed  by  moderation,  and  not  by 
ignorance  and  intolerance,  for  these  can  produce  nothing 
but  arguments  and  discourses  which,  however  plausible 
they  may  be,  are  entirely  destitute  of  reason,  and  effect  no 
manner  of  good.  Twenty-five  lashes,  which  is  the  maxi- 
mum of  the  punishment  permitted  by  the  laws,  and  ap- 
plied with  an  instrument  which  does  riot  inflict  very  se- 
vere chastisement  on  the  semi-barbarous  culprits,  are  a 
.very  proper  and  appropriate  punishment  when  it  becomes 
necessary  to  regulate  confused  ideas,  to  eradicate  ferocious 
habits,  and  to  maintain  good  discipline  among  the  masses 
of  a  dangerous  part  of  the  population. 

The  fact  is  that  the  said  punishment  is  rarely  inflicted 
with  the  severity  prescribed  by  the  law;  at  the  same  time 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  whip  of  the  overseer  does 
not  occasionally  fall,  with  warning  eloquence,  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  careless,  the  indolent  and  the  unruly,  who 
disturb  the  established  order  by  their  bad  example.  It  is 
possible  that  abuses  exist  owing  to  this  practice;  but,  so 
far  as  the  punishments  prescribed  by  the  regulations  are 
concerned,  they  being  more  severe  and  publicly  known,  it 
can  be  positively  affirmed  that  they  are  never  arbitrarily 
nor  causelessly  inflicted. 

I  once  resided  for  six  months  on  an  estate,  that  of  Buena 
Vista,  in  the  valley  of  Trinidad,  and  during  that  time 
there  were  but  very  few  cases  in  which  the  penalties  pres- 


96 

cribed  by  the  regulations  were  enforced.  One  of  these  was 
that  of  a  runaway  slave,  who,  having  escaped  punishment 
through  my  intervention,  again  took  to  flight  before  the 
week  had  elapsed.  Having  been  captured  a  second  time, 
he  again  appealed  to  me  to  intercede  for  him;  but,  al- 
though I  willingly  acceded  to  his  request,  my  intercession 
was  this  time  disregarded.  He  received  twenty-five  lashes, 
face  downward,  and  for  three  days  had  his  feet  placed 
in  the  stocks  after  working;  and,  being  subjected  for  some 
time  to  extra  surveillance,  he  subsequently  became  one  of 
the  best  behaved  and  most  industrious  negroes  on  the  es- 
tate. 

Such  is  the  true  character  of  slavery  and  its  punish- 
ments in  the  Spanish  colonies,  whatever  may  be  said  to 
the  contrary  by  ignorant  declaimers  and  interested  aboli- 
tionists. It  has  already  been  seen  that  the  law  could  not  be 
more  protective  or  humane,  for  it  contains  measures  to 
prevent  any  abuses  in  the  application  of  the  regulations  it 
prescribes.   * 

The  commendable  office  of  the  slave  protecting  syndics 
should  be  fulfilled  with  all  the  charitable  zeal  on  which 
it  was  founded,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  is 
thus  fulfilled,  as  the  negroes  always  have  free  access  to  the 
superior  authorities,  to  present  their  complaints  in  person. 

In  the  palace  at  Havana  on  all  the  audience  days,  which 
are  of  frequent  occurrence,  the  stairs  are  always  crowded 
with  colored  people  who  personally  appear  before  the 
Captain  General  to  make  known  their  difficulties.  Gen.- 
eraly  speaking,  these  are  mere  trifling  matters  as  may  be 
expected  from  the  limited  understanding  of  these  indivi- 
duals; some,  however,  are  just  complaints  which  are  im- 
mediately attended  to  by  the  proper  authorities,  nor  is  there 
any  lack  of  petitions  or  of  all  sorts  of  stratagems  to  obtain 
money,  which  are  not  familiar  to  the  negroes  in  said  con- 
dition; and  this  is  the  case  not  only  at  the  palace  of  the 
Captain  General,  but  also  at  the  Lieutenancies  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  inferior  courts  and  the  captaincies  of  the 
Districts;  so  that  the  rights  of  slaves  are  everywhere  pro- 
tected by  the  authorities. 

They  have  also  the  right  to  change  their  master  when 
they  can  show  sufficient  cause  why  the  law  should  protect 
them  on  this  point;  and  if  a  slave  does  not  wish  to  leave 
the  country  or  town  wherein  he   lives,  when  his  master 


97 

intends  to  send  him  elsewhere,  he  can  claim  the  right  to 
remain  in  said  place,  being  upheld  therein  by  the  special 
ordinances.  And  in  order  to  show  the  spirit  which  governs 
the  regulations  of  that  class  that  have  been  lately  promul- 
gated in  Havana,  on  which,  for  their  greater  efficiency, 
the  respectable  corporations  had  been  consulted,  L  shall 
here  insert  the  regulations  issued  by  the  present  Governor 
and  Captain  General  of  the  island  of  Cuba,  when  hardly 
two  months  had  elapsed  after  he  was  entrusted  with  that 
eminent  office. 

"Government  House  and  office  of  the  Captain  General  and 
delegated  Superintendent  of  Finance  of  the  ever  loyal 
Island  of  Cuba. 

OFFICE    OF    THE    SECRETARY    OF    GOVERNMENT. 

"  So  as  to  carry  out  with  due  effect  the  power  of  enlarge- 
ment reserved  by  the  civil  and  Superior  Governement  in 
the  regulations  published  by  my  worthy  predecessor  on  the 
18th  of  Septembre  last,  and  bearing  in  mind  what  has  been 
proposed  by  their  Excellencies  the  corporation  of  this  city, 
and  the  information  given  by  their  Excellencies,  the  Coun- 
cil of  Administration,  I  have  decreed  the  following: 

Regulations  for  the  Syndic  offices  in  this  city,  on  the  ap- 
pearance of  slaves  to  prefer  complaints  against  their 
owners. 

"  Article  I. — Within  twenty-four  hours  after  a  slave  has 
appeared  to  complain  of  his  owner,  the  latter  shall  be  no- 
tified,' the  day  and  hour  being  appointed  when  he  shall 
appear  before  the  Syndic,  which  conference  must  take 
place  within  three  days  after  the  application  of  the  slave. 

"Art.  II. — The  nature  of  the  conference  requires  the  per- 
sonal appearance  of  the  owner,  who  can  only  be  excused  on 
satisfactory  grounds,  in  which  case  he  must  be  represented 
by  a  duly  authorized  person. 

"  Art.  Ill — If  no  agreement  should  be  arrived  at  in  the 
conference  between  the  Syndic  and  the  owner,  or  if  the 
latter  should  not  attend  to  the  second  summons,  then  the 
former  shall  institute  a  demand  or  act  of  peace  before  a 
competent  Judge  which  shall  be  presented  within  eight 
days  after  the  second  summons. 

"  Art.  IV. — The  agreement  made  between  the  Syndic  and 


98 

the  owner  of  the  slave,  shall  be  written  out  in  a  book  kept 
by  the  former  and  signed  by  both.  \ 

u  Art.  V. — When  there  should  be  a  just  cause  for  the 
sale  of  the  slave,  he  shall  not  be  allowed  to  return  into 
the  power  of  his  master,  but  shall  be  placed  in  the 
house  of  some  neighbor,  considered  reliable  both  by  the 
owner  and  the  Syndic;  and  if  this  cannot  be  done  whilst 
the  slave  is  seeking  anew  master  he  shall  sleep  at  night  in 
the  judicial  depot,  and  shall  not  be  hired  out  during  the 
next  ensueing  ei^ht  days. 

"  Art.  VI. — When  the  complaints  of  the  slave  are  not 
for  cruelty,  or  where  the  Syndic  may  judge  that  he  will 
not  be  badly  treated  on  account  of  having  entered  his  com- 
plaint, then  he  shall  be  returned  to  his  owner,  with  whatever 
securities  the  Syndic  may  think  prudent,  while  his  com- 
plaint is  being  examined  by  judicial  or  extra-judicial  acts. 

"  Art.  VII. — The  deposit  in  general  for  slaves,  or  their 
provisional  detention  is  only  intended  for  males.  The 
women  in  all  cases,  and  for  whatever  lenght  of  time,  shall 
be  placed  in  deposit  inthe  hospital  of  St.  Francis,  or  in  the 
Charitable  Asylum,  and  shall  be  employed  in  the  service 
of  these  establishments,  where  they  shall  be  maintained 
without  the  owner  having  to  pay  more  than  two  reals 
for  each  slave  no  matter  how  many  days  she  may  have  to 
remain  there.  This  contribution  is  destined  for  the  super- 
intendents of  said  establishments,  for  their  trouble  in  keep- 
ing an  account  of  those  slaves  who  are  received  and  dis- 
charged. 

"  Art.  VIII. — The  deposit  or  detention  can  be  dispensed 
with  when,  a  slave  on  making  application  for  his  freedom, 
pays  over  into  the  Royal  Treasury,  in  the  Bank  of  Spain, 
or  in  the  Saving's  Bank,  a  sum  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Syndic,  may  be  deemed  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  and  pre- 
sent the  certificate  of  his  deposit;  in  which  case,  being 
provided  with  a  written  permit  by  the  Syndic,  he  can  en- 
gage in  some  employment  while  the  question  of  granting 
him  his  free  papers  is  pending;  his  wages  being  placed  in 
the  Savings  Bank  to  be   delivered  to  the  proper  parties. 

u  Art.  IX. — With  regard  to  the  price  of  the  freedom  of 
a  child  ye c  unborn  the  usual  custom  shall  be  observed, 
and  the  owner  of  the  mother  can  not  prevent  her  suckling 
and  bringing  up  her  child  for  the  length  of  time  determi- 
ned by  the  law  and  the  Slave  Regulations.     Neither  can 


99 

children  under  seven  years  of  age  be  separated  from  their 
mothers,  by  sale  or  ortherwise,  unless  it  be  for  the  good 
of  the  latter,  and  so  ordered  by  the  Syndic  or  by  the  Judge. 

"Art.  X. — If  the  slave  should  present  himself  wounded, 
hurt,  or  sick,  in  such  a  way  as  to  require  medical  assis- 
tance, he  shall  be  removed  to  the  Hospital  of  Charity,  and, 
according  to  the  gravity  of  his  case,  the  Syndic  shall  make 
it  known  to  the  judge  to  whose  jurisdiction  it  may  belong, 
so  that  he  may  proceed  according  to  law;  or  else  he  shall 
make  it  known  to  the  owner,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
summons  him  to  the  conference. 

"Art.  XI. — The  owners  of  slaves  whose  price  has  been 
fixed,  and  who  employ  them  in  their  personal  service,  owe 
them  the  difference  between  the  sum  that  they  actually 
earn  with  them,  and  that  which  they  might  earn  if  they 
worked  on  their  own  account;  but  this  does  not  prevent 
the  matter  being  amicably  arranged  between  the  master 
and  the  slave. 

"Art.  XII. — It  not  being  just  that  an  intelligent  and 
well  behaved  slave  who,  knowing  some  trade,  should 
experience  greater  difficulty  injobtaining  freedom  through 
his  savings,  or  other  legitimate  means,  than  one  who  is 
vicious  and  stupid,  because  the  price  of  the  former  is  great- 
er than  that  of  the  latter,  the  appraiser,  at  the  time  of 
fixing  the  price  for  his  liberation,  shall  only  take  into  ac- 
count the  age,  health  and  physical  aspect  of  the  slave,  as 
also  the  amount  of  money  expended  by  the  owner  in  teach- 
ing him  his  trade,  or  what  this  instruction  might  reason- 
ably ajnount  to,  if  he  has  not  already  been  indemnified  by 
his  work. 

"Art.  XIII. — When  the  slave  has  not  given  any  motive 
or  cause  for  his  owner  to  sell  him,  and  when  such  sale  is 
only  the  result  of  the  free  will  of  the  owner,  the  said  slave 
has  a  right  to  request  a  delay  of  three  days,  that  he  may 
endeavor  to  find  a  new  master,  a  paper  to  that  effect  be- 
ing given  to  him  by  tne  owner;  but,  after  the  three  days, 
his  owner  is  privileged  to  sell  him  to  whoever  he  may 
choose. 

"Art.  XIV. — The  administrator  of  the  judicial  deposit, 
on  hiring  out  slaves  remitted  to  him  by  the  Syndics,  shall 
impose  on  all  who  may  hire  them,  the  condition  of  not 
taking  them  outside  of  the  city  and  its  suburbs,  as  also 
that  they  shall  not  prevent  them  from  going  to  the  office 


100 

of  the  Syndic,  with  an  officer,  whenever  their  presence  may 
be  needed. 

"Art.  XV. — When  a  slave  shall  present  himself  to  com- 
plain of  his  master,  who  belongs  to  another  municipal  dis- 
trict, the  Syndic  shall  notify  such  master,  inviting  him  to 
confer  with  him  within  the  space  of  eight  days,  or  asking 
him  if  he  would  prefer  the  slave  to  be  sent  to  the  Syndic 
of  his  own  jurisdiction,  accompanied  by  a  sheriff,  at  his 
own  cost;  on  receiving  his  answer,  the  Syndic  will  imme- 
diately send  the  slave,  and  if  no  answer  be  made,  such 
slave  shall  be  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  superior  civil 
government. 

"Art.  XVI. — Whenever  any  Syndic  shall  have  notice  of 
a  grave  abuse  of  an  owner  against  his  slave,  he  shall  have 
recourse  to  the  proper  authority,  so  that  he  may  aj>ply  an 
immediate  remedy. 

"Art.  XVII. — The  Syndics  are  obliged  to  take  personal 
cognizance  of  the  verbal  demands  which  may  be  made, 
and  only  on  account  of  sickness  or  urgent  occupations  can 
they  be  replaced  by  the  prefects,  who  in  those  cases  are 
obliged  to  fill  their  places* 

"Art.  XVIII. — The  owners  of  slaves,  in  all  the  rela- 
tions they  may  have  with  the  Syndics,  shall  treat  them 
with  all  the  respect  and  consideration  which  are  due  to 
them  as  magistrates  and  as  protectors  of  the  slaves;  a 
troublesome  duty  which  they  fulfill  towards  the  public  in 
general  and  the  owners  in  particular. 

"Art.  XIX. — The  delicate  charge  which  our  laws,  cus- 
toms and  government  confide  to  the  Syndics  is  essentially 
one  of  justice  and  equity;  and  for  this  reason  they  should 
inculcate  in  the  slaves  maxims  of  obedience  and  fidelity  to 
their  masters,  and  in  the  latter  those  of  humanity,  affec- 
tion and  protection  towards  their  slaves. 

"Havana,  January  28th,  1863.  Domingo  Dulce." 

In  order  to  strenghten  the  arguments  and  explanations 
which  I  have  given  respecting  the  nature  of  this  institu- 
tion, which  is  so  justly  condemned  on  account  of  the  name 
by  which  it  is  called,  I  could  quote  many  authorities  who 
have  preceded  me  in  the  investigation  of  this  matter;  but, 
not  finding  in  any  of  them  the  spirit  of  moderation  which 
is  necessary  to  the  proper  discussion  of  a  subjet  of  such 
importance,  when  the  object  is  to  enlighten  all  parties  with- 


101 

out  offending  any;  and,  moreover,  as  they  cannot  be  more 
convincing  than  the  observations  which  I  have  made  al- 
ready, I  trust  that  the  sound  judgment  of  my  readers  and 
their  reliance  on  my  sincerity,  will  excuse  me  from  pro- 
ducing the  evidence  which  would  be  required  under  other 
circumstances. 

The  truth  is  that  when  an  idea  which  is  not  firmly  based 
on  justice  is  set  forth  by  its  authors  with  the  desire  that 
it  shall  become  generally  prevalent  and  bear  down  all  op- 
position, all  the  resources  of  the  human  mind  are  put  in 
play  to  give  it,  in  the  opinion  of  the  public,  the  import- 
ance and  authority  which  it  could  never  attain  without 
artifice.  For  the  better  success  of  this  design,  the  natural 
ignorance  of  the  majority  is  taken  advantage  of,  and  the 
humane  feelings  of  all  are  worked  upon  when  the  ques- 
tion can  in  any  manner  affect  them;  and  by  keeping  these 
springs  in  motion  perseveringly,  it  is  easy  to  convert  the 
greatest  of  iniquities  into  an  universally  just  necessity. 

We  have  seen  a  striking  example  of  this  in  the  general 
outcry  which  was  raised  against  the  Spaniards  for  the 
manner  in  which  they  treated  the  Indians,  according  to  the 
false  accounts  with  which  Father  Las  Casas,  through  mo- 
tives of  self-interest,  defamed  our  character.  In  order  to 
despoil  the  crown  of  Spain  of  all  that  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent which  we  still  possessed  at  the  commencement  of 
the  present  century,  as  a  just  recompense  for  its  discovery 
and  civilization  at  the  cost  of  great  sacrifices,  there  was 
not  a  single  calumny,  among  all  those  made  against  us  by 
th%t  celebrated  friar,  which  was  not  published  and  com- 
mented on  in  all  languages,  especially  with  the  object  of 
demonstrating  that  the  barbarous  tyranny  of  the  Spaniards 
had  wished  to  effect  the  total  extermination  of  the  In- 
dians. ,  i 

Nevertheless,  at  the  same  time  that  these  calumnies 
were  being  levelled  at  us,  the  most  learned  sage  among  the 
eminent  men  of  this  and  of  the  past  century,  a  distin- 
guished writer  whose  fame  was  universal,  and  who,  being 
a  German,  and  not  connected  with  us  in  any  manner,  could 
not  be  accused  of  unjust  partiality  towards  us,  was  de- 
monstrating in  the  clearest  manner,  based  on  the  most 
careful  observations  and  the  most  sofemn  evidence,  that 
in  Mexico,  the  number  of  Indians  was  far  greater  in  1S0S 
than  at  the  time  of  its  discovery,  owing  to  the  order  estab- 


102 

lished  by  the  laws  fort  heir  mode  of  living,  preservation 
and  prosperity,  and  to  the  paternal  care  lavished  on  them 
by  the  Spaniards  who  ruled  them.(1)  I  am  positively  cer- 
tain that,  if  the  illustrious  author  had  prosecuted  the  same 
line  of  studies  in  the  other  parts  of  Spanish  America,  he 
would  have  pronounced  the  same  opinion  with  regard  to  ' 
them,  with  the  exception  of  the  islands  wherein  the  abo- 
rigines were  found  in  fewer  numbers,  and  the  agglomera- 
tion of  the  whites  and  negroes  was  much  greater  than  in 
the  other  parts,  owing  to  which  the  Indian  race  ere  long 
disappeared,  being  amalgamated  with  the  others.  But 
the  political  tendencies,  which  had  decreed  the  indepen- 
dence of  Spanish  America  as  a  just  punishment  for  our 
connivance  in  the  independence  of  British  America,  would 
have  utterly  disregarded  any  such  demonstrations,  and 
would  still  have  continued  to  indorse  the  calumnies  of 
Father  Las  Casas,  both  in  the  council  and  in  the  pulpit. 

Let  no  one  be  surprised,  then,  at  the  contradictions 
which  may  result  between  my  impartial  demonstrations 
on  the  slavery  of  the  negroes  as  it  exists  at  present  in  the 
Spanish  possessions,  which  are  taken  from  the  existing  re- 
gulations and  from  the  actual  practice,  which  cannot  be 
contradicted,  as  it  is  open  to  the  view  of  all  the  world,  and 
the  never  ceasing  aspersions  to  which  our  ears  are  so  well 
accustomed,  and  which  have  caused  such  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  abolitionists  in  countries  where  slavery  is 
unknown,  except  by  false  representation. 

God,  in  bestowing  on  us  the  gift  of  hearing,  gave  us 
two  organs  by  which  we  might  hear  impartially  both  sides 
of  every  question,  and  thus  be  governed  in  our  decisions 
by  a  true  knowledge  of  the  case,  and,  above  all,  by  jus- 
tice. Let  the  reader,  then,  listen  patiently  to  the  pros 
and  cons  of  this  question,  and,  moreover,  let  those  who 
have  as  yet  no  suspicion  of  the  purpose  of  this  work, 
not  be  startled  at  the  novelty  of  my  opinions  whenever 
they  are  found  to  clash  with  their  prejudices. 


(1)  Humboldt,  Treatise  on  New  Spain, 


» 


I 

I 


CHAPTER  VI. 


The  condition  of  the  laboring  negroes  in  America  is  not  that  of  slavery, 
which  nomenclature  has  been  erroneously  applied  to  it,  and  is  utterly 
false. — Exertions  of  the  abolitionists  to  destroy  negro  labor. — Investiga- 
tion on  the  origin  of  this  idea. — There  is  no  truly  moral  principle  prac- 
tically involved  in  the  prohibition  of  the  redemption  of  negroes,  which  is 
called  the  slave  trade. — The  abolition  of  slavery  such  as  it  has  hitherto 
been  effected,  is  opposed  to  the  civilization  of  the  negroes,  to  the  prospe- 
rity of  the  Colonies,  and  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  world. — Origin  of 
the  abolitionist  idea,  its  propagation  and  diffusion  in  official  spheres. — The 
London  Philantropical  Society. — Its  agents  and  its  organized  propaga- 
tion.— First  concession  made  by  Spain  to  England  as  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery :  additional  articles  to  the  treaty  of  5th  July  1814. — Spirit  of  the 
treaty  of  September  23,  1817,  to  abolish  the  slave  trade.— Its  effects  are 
contrary  to  the  moral  end  with  which  it  was  apparently  made. — Treaty  of 
1835. 


Towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  it  has 
been  shown,  and  according  to  the  proofs  adduced  in  the 
previous  chapters,  the  redemption  of  the  negroes  from 
Africa  was  humane,  civilizing,  useful,  and  even  eminent- 
ly Christian;  and  their  organized  labor  would  have  been 
equitable,  protective  and  beneficent,  if,  from  the  com- 
mencement, it  had  been  divested  of  the  odious  name 
which,  with  such  want  of  propriety,  was  applied  to  it 
by  the  arrogance  of  some,  the  egotism  of  others,  the  va- 
nity of  the  majority  and  the'  uniformity  which  custom 
had  created. 

The  Encyclopedists  of  Europe,  confounding  facts  with 
words,  the  positive  with  the  suppositious,  reason  with 
s6phistry,  order  with  confusion,  liberty  with  licence,  and, 
in  short,  subverting  all  the  social  ideas  on  which  the 
great  edifice  of  Christian  civilization  rests,  had  even  then 
succeeded  in  perverting  the  public  mind,  in  changing  the 
feelings,  in  distorting  justice  to   suit  their  purposes,  in 


104    ' 

perverting  the  existing  law,  and  inflicting  a  deep  injury 
on  the  rights  of  property,  which,  at  a  later  day,  would 
cause  great  losses  to  well  deserving  individuals  and  weal- 
thy communities. 

Their  first  expressions  were  heard  in  the  British  par- 
liament, spoken  in  the  house  of  commons  by  the  .cele- 
brated Mr.  Pitt,  and  were  afterwards  repeated  in  the 
French  tribune  by  the  eloquent  Mirabeau,  which  pro- 
duced the  atrocities  of  Hayti,  which  cost  the  Republic 
so  many  sacrifices,  to  commerce  so  many  losses,  and  to 
humanity  so  much  precious  blood. 

When  the  mind  pauses  to  reflect  on  that  tremendous 
period  of  the  revolution  of  ideas  which  is  still  progressing, 
curiosity  is  quickened  by  the  desire  to  ascertain  the  true 
cause  of  the  one  so  openly  and  absolutely  proclaimed,  as  to 
the  abolition  of  the  redemption  of  the  negroes,  and  the 
emancipation  from  all  servitude  in  regard  to  those  who 
were  already  redeemed. 

Policy  has  two  great  motive  powers,  without  which  no- 
thing could  be  resolved  in  its  spheres,  as  by  their  means 
States  are  governed,  harmonizing  their  respective  interests. 
One  of  these  powers  is  essentially  moral,  and  is  symbolized 
injustice;  the  other  is  material,  and  proceeds  from  politi- 
cal economy.  With  the  former  only  appearances  might 
seem  in  conflict  with  the  question  we  are  discussing;  and 
the  latter  must  not  be  accepted,  either,  as  it  is  presented  by 
private  history.  I  will  explain  myself,  and  leave  it  to  the 
judgment  of  the  reader  to  draw  his  own  inference. 

The  Spanish  colonies  were  at  that  time  of  immense  ex- 
tent and  wealth;  their  productions  supplied  the  whole 
world;  and,  although  smuggling  defrauded  the  treasury  of 
large  sums,  all  the  nations  of  the  world  contributed  to  the 
wealth  of  the  government  and  of  the  landed  proprietors  of 
the  colonies. 

England,  France,  Portugal  and  the  Dutch  had  colonies 
similar  to  ours  and  contiguous  to  them;  but,  although 
many  of  the  productions  of  their  soil  were  similar  to  those 
of  the  Spanish  colonies,  the  quantity  was  so  small,  in  com- 
parison, that  it  would  have  been  absurd  to  state  it  in  this 
disertation. 

At  this  time,  the  English  government  encouraged  more 
than  ever  the  idea  of  raising  to  the  highest  degree  the 
productions  of  that  part  of  the  East  Indies  under  their  do- 


105 

minion;  and,  as  this  purpose  coincided  with  that  fervent 
extemporized  zeal  against  the  redemption  of  the  negroes, 
to  abolish  slavery,  many  suspected  that  the  question  pre- 
sented with  such  flattering  show  of  justice  and  philanthro- 
py, was  but  a  question  of  local  interest,  founded  on  a 
-  principle  of  egotism,  and  this  opinion  was  expressed  by 
several  authors  in  their  works. 

In  order  to  argue  in  this  way,  it  is  necessary  that  we 
should  analyze  the  case  in  its  moral  tendency;  not  as  a 
question  of  feelings,  without  further  data  than  those  of 
the  impulse  of  the  moment,  but  looking  to  the  principles 
and  to  the  ends  with  all  their  advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages, which  is  the  manner  in  which  governments  argue, 
and  on  this  rests  the  justice  of  the  appreciations. 

We  have  already  seen  the  manner  in  which  the  negroes 
on  the  coast  of  Africa  lived  previous  to  the  time  when  the 
interest  of  the  American  colonies  induced  their  redemp- 
tion: vagrants  without  home  or  country,  with  but  confused 
ideas  of  family  ties;  strangers  to  any  sort  of  civilization, 
and  in  perpetual  strife  among  the  different  tribes,  sacrifi- 
cing each  other  like  idolaters,  and  devouring  one  another 
like  wild  beasts.  The  practice  which,  by  arousing  the  cu- 
pidity of  the  conquerors,  prevented  them  from  sacrificing 
their  captured  foes,  was  an  immense  benefit  to  humanity, 
and  a  great  pecuniary  advantage  to  the  colonies;  and  if 
this  cannot  be  denied,  after  the  expositions  made  in  this 
book,  and  those  which  are  still  to  be  made,  it  is  also  posi- 
tively established  as.  a  fact  that  the  idea,  which  began  to 
develop  itself  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
of  suppressing  the  redemption  of  negroes  in  Africa,  even 
though  it  was  accompanied  by  the  thought  of  subsequent- 
ly abolishing  slavery  in  America,  was  devoid  of  any  prin- 
ciple of  true  morality,  and  was  nothing  more  than  the 
embodiment  of. the  theories  of  visionaries. 

The  good  and  the  evil,  in  this  case,  are  represented  by 
relative  ideas,  and  cannot  be  taken  for  their  application  in 
an  absolute  sense.  The  abolition  of  slavery  is  a  benefit 
tha*t  no  one  denies,  that  no  one  rejects,  and  to  which  the 
whole  civilized  world  justly  aspires.  But  suppression  of 
redemption  where  it  is  carried  on  to  mitigate  the  effects  of 
a  war  of  extermination,  without  contriving  anything  to 
substitute  it,  without  any  agreement  among  civilized  na- 
tions for  the  prevention  of  human  sacrifices  in  Africa, 


106 

without  establishing  in  that  country  some  ideas  of  civili- 
zation and  new  customs,  is  not  an  idea  worthy  of  the  mind 
of  great  statesmen,  nor  of  the  support  of  truly  generous 
nations? 

And  even  the  abolition  of  slavery  considered  in  itself, 
without  reference  to  the  redemption  in  Africa,  is  injurious 
to  property,  unjust  to  the  owners,  and  prejudicial  to  the 
negroes  themselves;  and  we  have  full  evidence  that  it  has 
proved  -such  in  all  those  places  where  it  has  been  carried 
out.  The  products  of  labor  and  the  wealth  of  the  proprie- 
tors being  relative,  as  are  also  the  number  of  the  laborers 
and  the  means  of  their  maintainance,  if  the  established  or- 
der which  maintains  the  discipline  of  labor  is  substituted 
by  individual  will,  which  destroys  it,  the  productive  agents 
naturally  decrease  without  a  corresponding  diminution  in 
the  number  of  consumers,  and  far  from  doing  good  to  the 
class  which  it  is  intended  to  benefit,  it  inflicts  on  it  a  great 
injury;  and  to  this  fact  the  English  colonies  in  America 
have  given  ample  testimony.  » 

I  have  seen  multitudes  of  negroes  begging  where  former- 
ly public  charity  had  never  been  called  upon;  and  I  have 
known  proprietors  of  the  English  West  Indies,  formerly  , 
wealthy,  soliciting  situations  as  overseers  on  estates  in  the 
Spanish  possessions. (1) 

England  being  the  first  who  injured  herself  in  her  gene- 
ral, interests  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  the  feelings  of  a 
few,  I  think  there  can  be  no  reason  to  attribute  a  sinister 
intention  to  the  idea  of  Mr.  Pitt  which  was  afterwards  rea- 
lized in  the  sphere"  of  the  government.  It  first  appeared 
at  an  opportune  time  whith  the  then  predominant  ideas, 
and  if  it  was  carried  to  an  inconceivable  extent,  this  was  due 
to  the  philanthropy  which  it  appeared  to  possess,  owing  to 
the  distance  from  the  lands  where'  its  disastrous  efects 
were  to  be  felt,  and  to  the  inexperience  of  those  who  re- 
ceived and  adopted  it,  without  either  understanding  or 
investigating  the  question,  and  guided  only  by  their  phi- 
lanthropy. 

Such  is  my  opinion,  though  it  may  not  agree  with  that 
of  those  who  seek  startling  analogies  among  unforeseen  coin- 
cidences; and  I  believe,  moreover,  that  the  efforts  of  En- 

(1)  One  of  these  was  from  the  island  of  Trinidad,  with  whom  I  was 
acquainted  in  1852,  in  Trinidad  de  Cuba,  acting  in  said  capacity  on  the 
estate  of  my  distinguished  friend  Mr.  Juste  German  Cantero. 


< 


107 

gland  to  raise  the  industrial  and  agricultural  products  in 
the  East  Indies  to  importance,  is  the  consequence,  not  the 
premise,  of  the  ruin  of  its  West  Indie  Colonies. 

Having  touched  on  this  question  lightly  and  with  the 
necessary  prudence  from  the  respect  which,  in  my  opinion, 
is  due  to  the  intention  of  others,  I  shall  continue  to  state 
the  progress  made  in  the  public  mind  which  though  emi- 
nently philanthropic  was  useless,  nay,  even  destructive  to 
the  very  individuals  who  were  to  have  been  benefited  by  it 
according  to  the  belief  of  its  supporters. 

Mr.  Pitt,  as  has  been  stated,  set  up  the  war  cry  against 
slavery  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  1788;  it  resounded 
subsequently  in  the  French  Tribune  when  the  revolution 
was  at  its  heigth,  as  it  was  to  be  expected,  the  idea  being 
already  evolved  and  sustained  with  the  authority  of  its 
, origin  and  the  unsparing  impulse  which  was  given  to  it;  and 
notwithstanding  that  the  breezes  which  wafted  to  America 
that  solemn  apostrophe  where  the  harbingers  of  the  carnage 
and  horrors  which  took  place  some  years  afterwards  in  a 
part  of  the  French  Colonies,  in  1807  the  British  Lords  ap- 
proved the  famous  law  which  gave  a  death  blow  to  the  insti- 
tution and  to  all  the  interests  in  any  way  connected  with  it. 

The  gigantic  triumph  of  the  abolitionist  scarcely  satis- 
fied them,  its  operation  being  local  and  limited;  for  which 
reason  and  perseverance  being  the  great  agent  to  arrive  at 
all  ends,  and  organized  order  its  most  powerful  auxiliary, 
those  fanatical  upholders  of  a  wrongly  interpreted  idea, 
associated  themselves  in  due  form,  to  labor  in  every  direc- 
tion and  in  every  way,  until  they  successfully  crowned 
their  work  as  they  had  conceived  and  as  they  still  continue 
to  foster  it. 

In  the  midst  of  the  war  of  independence  in  Spain,  when 
the  war  of  emancipation  had  also  broken  out  in  South 
America,  a  deputy  raised  his  voice  in  the  Cortes  at  Cadiz 
to  second  the  labors  of  the  philanthropic  society  of  London. 
This  was  a  generous  outburst  of  feelings  whose  intention  I 
do  not  condemn;  but  it  was  imprudent  and  foolish  under 
the  circumstances  when  our  enemies  took  advantage  of  all 
available  means,  this  being  not  one  of  the  worst,  owing  to 
the  object  to  which  it  referred  and  the  countries  which 
it  affected.  N 

About  that  time  there  was  a  lull  in  the  storm  which 
raged  over  our  Western  possessions  and  especialy  over  the 


108 

Indies,  where  the  compulsory  labor  of  the  negroes  had  been 
recognized  and  declared  to  be  of  absolute  necessity.  But 
the  restoration  of  the  king  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors 
which  had  been  usurped  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon  had 
been  assisted  by  our  English  allies,  and  gratitude  imme- 
diately wrought  that,  in  the  question  of  slavery,  which 
would  certainly  not  have  been  counselled  by  strict  justice. 

I  will  not  say  that  the  English  forced  the  Spanish  go- 
vernment to  adopt  the  idea  of  putting  an  end  to  the  re- 
demption of  Africans  to  insure  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
America  which  would  naturally  have  followed  had  the 
prohibition  been  efectually  carried  out;  but  it  can  safely  be 
presumed  that  in  proposing  that  idea  they  took  advantage 
of  the  existing  circumstances,  and  exaggerated  the  merit 
of  the  services  rendered  by  them,  for  we  find  the  agreement 
to  the  prohibition  inserted,  in  an  additional  article,  in  the 
treaty  of  peace,  friendship  and  alliance  made  and  signed 
at  Madrid,  on  the  5th  of  July  1814,  by  the  plenipotentia- 
ries of  Spain  and  England,  and  ratified,  with  the  said  ad- 
ditional article,  by  his  Catholic  Majesty,  on  the  28th  of 
August  of  the  same  year:  that  is  to  say  when  the  war  of 
Independence  had  just  terminated,  and  when  King  Fer- 
dinand, inexperienced  in  matters  of  government,  began  to 
rule  his  vast,  and  at  that  time,  complicated  monarchy. 

The  additional  article,  which,  in  said  treaty  appears 
like  an  exotic  plant  and  is  unintelligible,  aside  from  the 
spirit  which  dictated  it  with  ulterior  views,  reads  as 
follows: 

"  The  sentiments  of  his  Catholic  Majesty  being  entirely 
the  same  as  those  of  II.  B.  Majesty  as  to  the  injustice  and 
inhumanity  of  the  slave  trade  H.  Catholic  Majesty  will 
take  into  consideration,  with  mature  deliberation,  the 
means  of  combining  these  sentiments  with  the  necessities  of 
his  possessions  in  America.  EL  Catholic  Majesty  promises, 
moreover,  to  prohibit  his  subjects  engaging  in  the  slave 
trade,  when  it  may  be  with  the  object  of  providing  the  Is- 
lands and  possession  not  belonging  to  Spain;  and  also  to 
prevent  by  regulation  and  other  elicacious  means,  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Spanish  flag  from  being  afforded  to  foreigners 
engaged  in  said  trade  whether  they  be  subjects  of  H.  B. 
M.  or  of  other  States  or  Powers." 

And,  as  a  compensation  for  this  act  of  compliance, 
whose  interpretation,  by  the  Spaniards  well  versed  in  the 


109 

matter  alluded  to,  could  with  difficulty  be  guessed  at, 
another  additional  article  followed  the  one  above  copied, 
which,  to  a  certain  extent,  gives  us  the  clue  to  remove 
the  doubts  and  mysteries  which  envelop  the  former.  If 
we  take  into  account  the  seditious  offices  of  the  English 
and  the  material  aid  which  they  gave  to  the  revolted 
provinces  of  Spanish  America,  leaving  out  of  the  ques- 
tion the  analysis  of  what  motives  they  may  have  had 
to  pursue  that  policy,  and  looking  only  to  the  friendly 
remonstrances  made  by  the  Spanish  government  towards 
England,  while  demanding  that  the  offenses  committed 
by  British  subjects  against  our  authority  should  in  future 
be  prevented,  it  will  not  appear  strange  that  our  friends 
and  allies  should  have  taken  advantage  of  our  respect- 
ive situation,  and  exacted  from  us,  as  a  reciprocal  serv- 
ice, the  above  mentioned  promise  to  put  an  end  to  the 
slave  trade,  in  exchange  for  the  promise  given  by  them 
in  the  additional  article,  which  is  the  following: 

"H.  B.  Majesty  being  desirous  that  the  evils  and  dis- 
cord which  unhappily  reign  in  the  dominions  of  H.  C. 
Majesty  in  America,  shall  entirely  cease,  and  that  his 
subjects  in  those  provinces  shall  return  to  the  obedience 
of  their  legitimate  sovereign,  H.  B.  Majesty  binds  him- 
self to  adopt  the  most  effective  measures  to  prevent  his 
subjects  from  furnishing  either  arms,  ammunitions  or 
other  articles  of  war  whatever  to  the  rebels  of  Spanish 
America." 

The  strictness  with  which  this  engagement  of  Great 
Britain  was  fulfilled  is  written  with  Spanish  blood  in 
the  history  of  the  American  independence.  The  whole 
world  knows  that  the  arni3  and  the  most  skillful  agents 
to  make  them  useful  against  our  dominions  beyond  the 
seas,  were  sent  from  England.  Sometimes  soldiers  were 
openly  enlisted,  and  the  action  of  the  English  govern- 
ment to  furnish  the  recruits  with  war  materials  and  the 
means  of  transportation  was  also  publicly  known.  And 
in  the  mean  time  Spain  was  not  satisfied  with  having 
promised  to  modify  and  afterwards  to  abolish  the  slave 
trade;  but,  by  new  pressures  and  urgent  necessities  of  her 
precarious  situation,  was  at  last  under  the  necessity  of 
making  the  first  treaty  to  that  effect  with  England. 

This  happened  in  J  817,  when  past  trials  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  recent  defeats  and  shameful  de- 


J  110 

fections,  had  left  the  Spanish  government  without  naval 
means  with  which  to  smother  the  insurrection  in  the 
New  World.  To  overcome  this  difficulty,  our  shipyards 
being  empty  and  the  arsenals  without  armament,  mea- 
sures were  devised  to  purchase  a  squadron  of  war  ves- 
sels already  equipped  and  ready  for  sea,  in  whatever  di- 
rection it  might  be  required;  and  Russia  having  been  able 
to  furnish  us  with  five  ships  of  74  guns,  and  three  40  guns 
frigates,  for  the  sum  of  thirteen  millions  six  hundred  thou- 
sand rubles,  or  three  millions  four  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, England,  no  doubt,  to  relieve  Spain  from  the  burden 
which  the  new  debt  would  impose  upon  her,  hastened  to 
offer  us,  in  consideration  of  a  concession,  four  hundrd 
thousand  pounds  sterling,  or  two  millions  of  dollars,  as  an 
indemnification  for  our  losses  in  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade,  provided  we  acceded  implicitly  to  her  wishes  on  this 
point. 

And  as,  in  all  the  actions  of  life  which  can  injure  an  in- 
dividual or  a- community,  the  evil  is  in  the  first  step  taken, 
Spain  could  not  avoid,  in  1817,  the  natural  consequences 
of  the  solemn  promise  made  three  years  previous,  which 
was  the  first  step,  and,  worst  than  all,  which  has  since 
been  successively  taken  in  the  question  now  discussed. 

We  made  a  treaty  with  England  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade,  or  rather,  of  the  redemption  of  negroes,  on  the  N 
23d  of  September  of  the  above  mentioned  year;  but  its 
terms  were  not  binding  nor  absolute  for  all  places,  until 
three  years  afterwards,  though,  for  some,  it  was  to  take 
effect  immediately,  that  is  to  say,  that  the  first  article  de- 
clared the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  in  all  the  Spanish 
dominions,  from  the  30th  of  May,  1820,  and,  after  said 
date,  the  absolute  prohibition  of  the  trade  in  any  part  of 
the  coast  of  Africa;  and,  by  the  second  article,  this  trade 
was  allowed  to  be  continued  on  the  whole  coast  of  Africa 
south  of  the  equator,  and  by  no  means  to  the  north  of  it, 
until  the  said  30th  of  May,  1820. 

This,  no  doubt,  was  a  concession  made  to  the  material 
interests  which  were  about  to  be  injured,  and,  as  may  be 
seen,  was  contrary  to  the  moral  principles  which  it  was 
intended  to  preserve;  because,  if  the  object  of  the  aboli- 
tionists was  exclusively  the  extinction  of  slavery  without 
its  abolition,  and  if  it  only  affected  the  redemption  of  the 
negroes,  the  continuation  of  the  trade  for  three  years  more 


Ill 

to  the  south  of  the  Equator  might  so  increase  the  number 
of  slaves  of  both  sexes  in  our  colonies,  that,  by  proper  dis- 
cipline and  by  means  of  restrictive  regulations  against 
emancipation,  the  abolition  of  slavery  might  have  been 
made  forever  impossible,  as  would  have  been  the  case  in 
the  North  American  Confederation  were  it  not  for  the 
possible  results  of  the  present  war. 

Due  attention  should  be  given  to  this  observation,  not 
only  to  be  able  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  the  ends  of 
the  English  abolitionists,  and  of  the  means  which  they 
employed  to  accomplish  their  purpose,  but  also  to  under- 
stand the  question,  now  under  discussion,  with  a  clear  and 
defined  idea  of  humanity  and  public  law.  For/  if  the  ends 
of  the  abolitionists  were  really  to  abolish  slavery  by  inter- 
fering with  the  redemption,  trusting  for  their  final  suc- 
cess to  the  future  propagation  of  their  idea,  either  through 
the  compliance  of  the  nations,  such  as  France  displayed 
with  regard  to  her  colonies,  in  imitation  of  England,  or 
through  the  extinction  of  the  colored  races  In  such  other 
places  in  which  the  emancipation  should  not  be  carried 
out,  the  fact  is  that  they  were  most  signally  defeated,  in 
both  extremes,  as  the  results  of  their  labors  were  diame- 
trically opposed  to  their  cherished  purposes. 

Thus,  for  example,  in  the  United  States,  where,  owing 
to  the  greater  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  colonists, 
it  was  believed  that  it  was  more  advantageous  to  perpe- 
tuate the  institution,  acclimating  and  reproducing  it  with 
the  means  existing  at  the  time  the  treaties  were  made, 
without,  however,  renouncing  the  redemption,  the  facili- 
ties for  emancipation,  which  might  formerly  have  existed 
in  the  regulations  for  slaves,  disappeared  immediately,  and 
the  increase  of  the  negro  population,  which  formed  an  in- 
tegral part  of  property,  made  it  apparent  ere  long  that  it 
would  be  absolutely  impossible  to  effect  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  those  regions  without  a  violent  and  destructive 
struggle. 

Such  were  also  the  results  in  the  Spanish  colonies  as 
soon  as  the  government  of  the  metropolis  was  convinced 
that  it  had  already  made  to  philanthropy  all  the  conces- 
sions which  its  conscience  and  its  duty  demanded.  And, 
in  these  colonies  and  in  all  the  other  countries  which  con- 
tinued to  hold  slaves,  in  spite  of  the  treaties  made  with 
England  to  prohibit  the  slave  trade  in  Africa,  the  nulity 


112 

of  these  treaties  and  the  impotence  of  the  abolitionists 
were  made  manifest  by  the  illegal,  but  incorrigible  conti- 
nuance of  the  redemption,  through  the  necessities  of  agri- 
culture and  the  daring  of  the  traders. 

On  this  point,  to  which  I.  have  perhaps  devoted  too 
much  space  at  this  time,  I  will  again  occupy  myself  more 
minutely,  continuing  for  the  present  the  recital  of  the  con- 
cession made  to  England  by  the  colonial  nations,  and  of 
the  law  established  specially  with  Spain  in  the  last  treaty. 

That  of  1817,  being  as  it  was  the  first  of  these  trea- 
ties, ought  to  appear  entire  in  this  work;  but,  in  order 
to  avoid  so  many  repetitions,  I  prefer  to  insert  only  its 
fundamental  principles,  as  I  intend  to  give  the  one  which 
was  drawn  up  afterwards  with  the  corrections  and  amend- 
ments which  had  been  counselled  by  experience  during 
the  practice  of  the  first. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  England  would  not 
cease  from  her  efforts  until  she  had  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing from  the  other  nations  concessions  similar  to  those 
which  she  had  attained  from  us;  and  it  will  appear  na- 
tural that  she  should  have  continued  so  persistently  to 
obtrude  her  philanthropic  ideas  upon  us  in  order  to  ob- 
tain still  more  advantageous  results. 

We  were  not  alone  in  the  attitude  which  we  then 
took  against  any  further  concessions,  as  the  same  resis- 
tance was  made  by  the  other  States,  not  even  excepting 
France,  as  she  did  not  abolish  slavery  in  her  colonies 
until  the  last  revolution,  in  1848.  Nevertheless,  when 
we  were  most  seriously  engaged  in  our  .seven  years  civil 
war,  and  were  obliged  to  solicit  the  amplification  of  the 
treaty  of  the  quadruple  alliance,  which  provided  for  the 
presence  of  auxiliary  forces  on  the  Peninsula,  to  serve 
as  a  moral  support  to  the  throne  of  our  Queen.,  England 
again  recurred  to  us,  as  the  treaty  of  1817  was  hardly 
observed  at  all  after  the  death  of  our  last  king,  and  in 
a  friendly  manner  urged  us  to  furnish  still  another  prop 
to  her  reisrninor  idea. 

Whereas  many  Spaniards  have  since  blamed  the  gov- 
ernment of  that  period  for  not  having  repelled  this  new 
demand,  I  hasten  to  show  here  that  it  deserved  no  such 
reproaches;  for,  if  some  weakness  is  observed  in  this  con- 
cession, the  evil  'should  be  traced  to  its  original  source, 
which  is  nothing  less  than  the  second  additional  article  of 


113 

the  treaty  of  1814,  or,  we  could  with  better  reason  say,  to 
the  misfortunes  which  befel  us  during  a  period  of  nearly 
half  a  century.  This  ought  to  be  well  understood  so  that 
ignorant  censures  may  no  longer  be  levelled  at  the  glorious 
memory  of  an  illustrious  and  venerable  patrician. 

England's  demand,  which  will  appear  just  if  we  take 
into  consideration  the  precedents  and  nature  of  the  ques- 
tion, was  at  that  time  justly  acceded  to,  in  consequence  of 
which  the  treaty  now  existing  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  was  agreed  upon,  which  treaty  will  herein  be  found 
entire,  from  beginning  to  end,  with  the  accessory  diplo- 
mas. 

"  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  Regent 
of  Spain,  during  the  minority  of  Her  Daughter  Donna 
Isabella  the  second,  Queen  of  Spain,  being  desirous  of  ren- 
dering the  means  taken  for  abolishing  the  inhuman  traffic 
in  slaves  more  effective,  have,  in  order  to  obtain  this  im- 
portant object,  resolved  to  conclude  a  new  Convention,  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Treaty  contracted  between  both  Powers 
on  the  23rd  of  September  1817,  naming  respectively  for 
this  as  their  Plenipotentiaries,  to  wit:  His  Britannic  Ma- 
jesty, George  Villiers,  Esq.,  his  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  Madrid;  and 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen  Regent  of  Sp'ain,  Don  Francisco 
de  Paula  Martinez  de  la  Rosa,  Knight  Grand  Cross  of  the 
Royal  and  distinguished  Spanish  order  of  Charles  the  Third, 
of  that  of  Christ  of  Portugal,  and  of  that  of  Leopold  of  Bel- 
gium, who  having  duly  communicated  to  each  other  their 
respective  full  powers,  and  found  them  in  proper  form, 
have  agreed  upon  and  concluded  the  following  articles: 

"Article  I. — The  slave  trade  is  hereby  again  declared, 
on  the  part  of  Spain,  to  be  henceforward  totally  and  final- 
ly abolished  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

"Art.  II. — Her  Majesty  the  Queen  Regent  of  Spain, 
during  the  minority  of  her  daughter  Donna  Isabella  the 
second,  hereby  engages  that  immediately  after  the  exchange 
of  the  ratifications  of  the  present  Treaty,  and  from  time 
to  time  afterwards,  as  it  may  become  needful,  Her  Majesty 
will  take  the  most  effectual  measures  for  preventing  the 
subjects  of  Her  Catholic  Majesty  from  being  concerned  and 
her  flag  from  being  used,  in  carrying  on,  in  any  way,  the 
trade  in  slaves;  and  especially  that,  within  two  months 


114 

after  the  said  exchange,  she  will  promulgate  throughout 
the  dominions  of  Her  Catholic  Majesty  a  penal  law  inflict- 
ing a  severe  punishment  on  all  those  of  Her  Catholic  Ma- 
jesty's subjects  who  shall,  under  any  pretext  whatsoever, 
take  any  part  whatever  in  the  traffic  in  slaves. 

"Art.  III. — The  captain,  master,  pilot  and  crew  of  a 
vessel  condemned  as  good  prize  by  virtue  of  the  stipula- 
tions of  this  Treaty,  shall  be  severely  punished  according 
to  the  laws  of  the  country  of  which  they  are  subjects:  as 
also  the  owners  of  the  said  condemned  vessel,  unless  they 
prove  that  they  had  no  participation  in  the  enterprise. 

"Art.  IV. — In  order  more  completely  to  prevent  all  in- 
fringement of  the  spirit  of  the  present  Treaty,  the  two 
High  contracting  Parties  mutually  consent  that  those  ships 
of  their  Royal  Navies  respectively,  which  shall  be  provided 
with  special  instructions  for  that  purpose,  as  hereinafter 
mentioned,  may  visit  such  merchant  vessels  of  the  two 
Nations  as  may,  upon  reasonable  grounds,  be  suspected  of 
being  engaged  in  the  traffic  in  slaves;  or  of  having  been 
fitted  out  for  that  purpose,  or  of  having,  during  the  voyage 
on  which  they  are  met  by  the  said  cruizers,  been  engaged 
in  the  traffic  in  slaves,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this 
Treaty;  and  that  such  cruizers  may  detain  and  send,  or 
carry  away  such  vessels,  in  order  that  they  may  be  brought 
to  trial  in  the  manner  hereinafter  agreed  upon. 

"  In  order  to  fix  the  reciprocal  right  of  search  in  such 
a  manner  as  shall  be  adapted  to  the  attainment  of  the 
object  of  this  Treaty,  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  doubts, 
disputes  and  complaints,  the  said  right  of  search  shall 
be  understood  in  the  form  and  according  to  the  rules 
following:. 

"  Firstly.  It  shall  never  be  exercised  except  by  ves- 
sels of  war,  authorized  expressly  for  that  object,  accord- 
ing to  the  stipulations  of  this  Treaty. 

"  Secondly.  In  no  case  shall  the  right  of  search  be 
exercised  with  respect  to  a  vessel  of  the  Royal  Navy  of 
either  of  the  two  Powers,  but  only  as  regards  merchant 
vessels. 

"  Thirdly.  Whenever  a  merchant  vessel  is  searched 
by  a  ship  of  war,  the  commander  of  the- said  ship  shall, 
in  the  act  of  so  doing,  exhibit  to  the  commander  of  the 
merchant  vessel  the  document  by  which  he  is  duly  au- 
thorized to  that  end,  and  shall  deliver  to  hini  -a  certifi- 


115 

cate,  signed  by  him,  stating  his  rank  in  the  naval  ser- 
vice of  his  country,  and  the  name  of  the  vessel  he  com- 
mands, and  which  also  declares  that  the  only  object  of 
the  search  is  to  ascertain  whether  the  vessel  is  employed 
in  the  slave  traffic,  or  if  it  is  fitted  up  for  the  said  traf- 
fic. When  the  search  is  made  by  an  officer  of  the  crui- 
zer  who  is  not  the  commander,  the  said  officer  shall  ex- 
hibit to  the  captain  of  the  merchant  vessel  a  copy  of 
the  before  mentioned  special  orders,  signed  by  the  com- 
mander of  the  cruizer,  and  shall  in  like  manner  deliver 
a  certificate  signed  by  him,  stating  his  rank  in  the  Koyal 
Navy,  the  name  of  the  commander  by  whose  orders  he 
proceeds  to  make  the  search,  that  of  the  cruizer  in  which 
he  sails,  and  the  object  of  the  search,  as  has  been  al- 
ready laid  down.  If  it  appears  from  the  search  that  the 
papers  of  the  vessel  are  in  regular  order,  and  that  it  is 
employed  in  licit  objects,  the  officer  shall  enter  in  the 
logbook  of  the  vessel  that  the  search  has  been  made  in 
pursuance  of  tne  aforesaid  special  orders,  and  the  vessel 
shall  be  left  at  liberty  to  pursue  its  voyage.  The  rank  of 
the  officer  who  makes  the  search  must  not  be  less  than 
that  of  lieutenant  of  the  Royal  Navy,  unless  the  command, 
either  by  reason  of  death  or  other  cause,  is  at  the  time 
held  hy  an  officer  of  inferior  rank. 

"  Fourthly.  The  reciprocal  right  of  search  and  deten- 
tion shall  not  be  exercised  within  the  Mediterranean  sea, 
or  within  the  seas  in  Europe  lying  without  the  streights 
of  Gibraltar,  and  which  lye  to  the  Northward  of  the  thirty 
seventh  parallel  of  North  latitude,  and  also  within  and  to 
the  Eastward  of  the  Meridian  of  longitude  twenty  degrees 
west  of  Greenwich. 

"Art.  V. — In  order  to  regulate  the  mode  of  carrying  the 
provisions  of  the  preceding  article  into  execution,  it  is 
agreed: 

"  Firstly.  That  all  ships  of  the  Royal  Navies  of  the 
two  Nations,  which  shall  be  hereafter  employed  to  pre- 
vent the  traffic  in  slaves,  shall  be  furnished  by  their  res- 
pective Governments  with  a  copy  .in  the  English  and 
Spanish  languages,  of  the  present  Treaty;  of  the  instruc- 
tions for  cruizers  annexed  thereto  marked  A,  and  of  the 
regulations  for  the  mixed  Courts  of  justice  annexed  there- 
to marked  B;  which  annexes  respectively  shall  be  con- 
sidered as  integral  parts  of  the  Treaty. 


116 

u  Secondly.  That  each  of  the  High  contracting  Par- 
ties shall,  from  time  to  time,  communicate  to  the  other 
the  names  of  the  several  ships  furnished  with  such  in- 
structions, the  force  of  each  and  the  names  of  their  se- 
veral commanders;  the  said  commanders  ought  to  hold 
the  rank  of  captain  in  the  Royal  Navy,  or  at  least  of 
lieutenant;  it  being  nevertheless  understood  that  the  in- 
structions originally  issued  to  an  officer  holding  the  rank 
of  lieutenant  of  the  Navy,  or  other  superior  rank,  shall 
be  sufficient,  in  case  of  death  or  temporary  absence  of  the 
same,  to  authorize  the  officer  on  whom  the  command  of 
the  vessel  has  devolved,  to  make  the  search,  although  the 
said  officer  may  not  hold  the  aforesaid  rank  in  the  service. 

"  Thirdly.  That  if,  at  any  time,  the  commander  of  a 
cruizer  of  either  of  the  two  Nations  shall  suspect  that  any 
merchant  vessels  under  the  escort  or  convoy  of  any  ship  or 
ships  of  war  of  the  other  Nation  carries  slaves  on  board,  or 
has  been  engaged  in  the  traffic  in  slaves,  or  is  fitted  out 
for  the  purpose  thereof,  the  said  commander  of  the  cruizer 
shall  communicate  his  suspicions  to  the  commander  of  the 
convoy,  who,  accompanied  by  the  commander  of  the  crui- 
zer, shall  proceed  to  the  search  of  the  suspected  vessel; 
and  in  case  that  the  suspicions  appear  well  founded,  ac- 
cording to  the  tenor  of  this  Treaty,  then  the  said  vessel 
shall  be  conducted  or  sent  to  one  of  the  points  where  the 
mixed  Courts  of  justice  are  stationed,  in  order  that  the 
just  sentence  may  there  be  pronounced. 

"  Fourthly.  It  is  further  mutually  agreed  that  the 
commanders  of  the  ships  of  the  two  Royal  Navies,  respec- 
tively, who  shall  be  employed  on  this  service  shall  adhere 
strictly  to  the  exact  tenor  of  the  aforesaid  instructions. 

"Art.  VI. — As  the  two  preceding  articles  are  entirely 
reciprocal,  the  two  High  contracting  Parties  engage  mu- 
tually to  make  good  any  losses  which  their  respective  sub- 
jects may  incur  by  the  arbitrary  and  illegal  detention  of 
their  vessels;  it  being  understood  that  this  indemnity  shall 
be  borne  by  the  Government  whose  cruizer  shall  have  been 
guilty  of  such  arbitrary  and  illegal  detention,  and  that 
the  visit  and  detention  of  vessels  specified  in  the  fourth 
article  of  this  Treaty,  shall  only  be  effected  by  those  Bri- 
tish or  Spanish-  ships  which  may  form  part  of  the  two 
Royal  Navies  respectively,  and  by  such  of  those  ships  only 
as  are  provided  with  the  special  instructions  annexed  to 


117 

the  present  Treaty,  in  pursuance  of  the  provisions  thereof. 
The  indemnification  for  the  damages  of  which  this  article 
treats  shall  be  made  within  the  term  of  one  year,  reckon- 
ing from  the  day  in  which  the  mixed  Court  of  justice  pro- 
nounces its  sentence. 

"Art.  VII. — In  order  to  bring  to  adjudication,  with  as 
little  delay  and  inconvenience  as  possible,  the  vessels  which 
may  be  detained,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  fourth  ar- 
ticle of  this  Treaty,  there  shall  be  established,  as  soon  as 
may  be  practicable,  two  mixed  Courts  of  justice,  formed  of 
an  equal  number  of  individuals  of  the  two  Nations,  and 
named  for  this  purpose  by  their  respective  Sovereigns. 
These  Courts  shall  reside,  the  one  in  a  possession  belong- 
ing to  His  Britannic  Majesty,  the  other  within  the  terri- 
tories of  Her  Catholic  Majesty;  and  at  the  period  of  the 
exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  the  present  Treaty,  the 
two  Governments  shall  declare,  each  for  its  own  dominions, 
in  what  places  these  Courts  shall  respectively  reside. 

"  But  each  of  the  two  High  contracting  Parties  reserves 
to  itself  the  right  of  changing,  at  his  pleasure,  the  place 
of  residence  of  the  Court  held  within  its  own  dominions; 
provided  always  that  one  of  the  two  Courts  shall  always  be 
held  upon  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  other  in  one  of  the 
colonial  possessions  of  Her  Catholic  Majesty. 

"These  Courts,  from  which  there  shall  be  no  appeal, 
shall  judge  the  causes  submitted  to  them  according  to  tha 
provisions  of  the  present  Treaty,  and  according  to  the  re- 
gulations and  instructions  which  are  annexed  to  the  pre- 
sent treaty,  and  which  are  considered  an  integral  part 
thereof. 

"Art.  VIII. — It  is  hereby  agreed,  between  the  High 
contracting  Parties,  that  the  mixed  Commissions  which 
are  at  present  established,  and  sitting  under  the  Conven- 
tion concluded  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain  on  the 
23rd  September  1817,  shall  continue  to  sit,  and  shall  dur- 
ing two  months,  to  be  reckoned  from  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  Treaty,  and  until  the  further  appoint- 
ment and  definitive  establishment  of  the  mixed  Courts  of 
justice  under  the  present  Treaty,  adjudge,  without  appeal, 
according  to  the  principles  and  stipulations  of  the  same, 
and  of  the  several  annexes  thereof,  the  cases  of  such  ves- 
sels as  may  be  sent  or  brought  before  them;  and  any  va- 
cancies which    may   occur   in    such  mixed  Commissions 


118 

shall  be  filled  up  in  the  same  manner  in  which  vacancies 
of  the  mixed  Courts  of  justice  to  be  established  under  the 
provisions  of  this  Treaty  are  to  be  supplied. 

Art.  IX. — In  case  the  commanding  officer  of  any  of  the 
ships  of  the  Koyal  Navies  of  Great  Britain  and  Spain  res- 
pectively, duly  commissioned,  according  to  the  provisions 
of  the  fourth  article  of  this  Treaty,  shall  deviate  in  any 
respect  from  the  stipulations  of  the  said  Treaty,  or  from 
the  instructions  annexed  to  it,  the  Government  which 
shall  conceive  itself  to  be  wronged  thereby,  shall  be  en- 
titled to  demand  reparation;  and  in  such  case  the  Go- 
vernment to  which  such  commanding  officer  may  belong 
binds  itself  to  cause  enquiry  to  be  made  into  the  sub- 
ject of  the  complaint,  and  to  inflict  upon  the  said  offi- 
cer a  punishment  proportioned  to  any  wilful  transgres- 
sion which  he  may  have  committed. 

"Art.  X. — It  is  hereby  further  mutually  agreed  that 
every  merchant  vessel,  British  or  Spanish,  which  shall 
be  visited  by  virtue  of  the  present  Treaty,  may  lawfully 
be  detained  and  sent  or  brought  before  the  mixed  Courts 
of  justice,  established  in  pursuance  of  the  provisions 
thereof,  if  in  her  equipment  there  shall  be  found  any  of 
the  things  hereinafter  mentioned,  namely: 

"  1st.  Hatches  with  open  gratings,  instead  of  the  close 
hatches  which  are  usual  in  merchant  vessels. 

"2d.  Divisions  or  bulkheads  in  the  hold  or  on  deck 
in  greater  number  than  are  necessary  for  vessels  engaged 
in  lawful  trade. 

"  3rd.  Spare  planks  fitted  for  laying  down  as  a  se- 
cond or  slave  deck. 

"  4th.     Shackles,  bolts,  or  handcuffs. 

"  5th.  A  larger  quantity  of  water  in  casks  or  in  tanks 
than  is  requisite  for  the  consumption  of  the  crew  of  the 
vessel,  as  a  merchant  vessel. 

"6  th.  An  extraordinary  number  of  water  casks  or 
of  other  vessels  for  holding  liquid,  unless  the  master  shall 
produce  a  certificate  from  the  custom  house  at  the  place 
from  which  he  cleared  outwards,  stating  that  a  sufficient 
security  had  been  given  by  the  owners  of  such  vessel, 
that  such  extra  quantity  of  casks1  or  of  other  vessels  should 
only  be  used  to  hold  palm  oil,  or  for  other  purposes  of 
lawful  commerce. 

"7th.     A  greater  quantity  of  mess  tubs  or  kids  than 


119 

are  requisite  tor  the  use  of  the  crew  of  the  vessel  as  a 
merchant  vessel. 

"  8th.  A  boiler  of  an  unusual  size  and  larger  than 
requisite  for  the  use  of  the  crew  of  the  vessel  as  a  mer- 
chant vessel,  or  more  than  one  boiler  of  the  ordinary- 
size. 

"  9th.  An  extraordinary  quantity  either  of  rice,  of 
the  flour  of  Brazil,  of  manioc  or  cassada,  commonly  call- 
ed farinha  of  maize  or  of  Indian  corn,  beyond  what  might 
probably  be  requisite  for  the  use  of  the  crew;  such  rice, 
flour,  maize  or  Indian  corn  not  being  entered  on  the  ma- 
nifest as  part  of  the  cargo  for  trade. 

"Any  one  or  more  of  these  several  circumstances,  if 
proved,  shall  be  considered  as  prima  facie  evidence  of 
the  actual  employment  of  the  vessel  in  the  slave  trade; 
and  the  vessel  shall  there  upon  be  condemned  and  declared 
lawful  prize,  unless  satisfactory  evidence,  upon  the  part  of 
the  master  or  owners,  shall  establish  that  such  vessel  was 
at  the  time  of  her  detention  or  capture,  employed  in  some 
legal  pursuit. 

"  Art. -XL— -If  any  of  the  things  specified  in  the  preced- 
ing article  shall  be  found  in  any  merchant  vessel,  neither 
the  master  nor  owner  nor  any  person  whatever,  interested 
in  her  equipment  or  cargo,  shall  be  entitled  to  compensa- 
tion for  losses  or  damages  even  though  the  mixed  courts 
of  justice  should  not  pronounce  any  sentence  of  condem- 
nation, in  consequence  of  her  detention  ;  but  the  same 
tribunal  shall  be  authorized  to  pay  out  of  the  prize  fund, 
if  they  shall  think  it  in  equity  required,  some  sum  of 
money  proportionate  to  the  demurrage  suffered  and  accord- 
ing to  the  circumstances  of  the  case. 

"  Art.  XII. — It  is  hereby  agreed  between  the  two  high 
contracting  parties  that  in  all  cases  in  which  a  vessel  shall 
be  detained  under  this  treaty  by  their  respective  cruizers, 
as  having  been  engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  or  as  having 
been  fitted  out  for  the  purposes  thereof,  and  shall  conse- 
quently be  adjudged  and  condemned  b^  the  mixed  courts 
of  justice  to  be  established  as  aforesaid,  the  said  vessel 
shall,  immediately  after  its  condemnation,  be  broken  up 
entirely,  and  shall  be  sold  in  separate  parts  after  having 
been  so  broken  up. 

"  Art.  XIII. — The  negroes,  who  are  found  on  board  of  a 
vessel  detained  by  a  cruizer  and  condemned  by  the  mixed 


120 

courts  of  justice,  in  conformity  with  the  stipulations  of 
this  treaty,  shall  be  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  go- 
vernment whose  cruizer  has  made  the  capture;  but  on  the 
understanding  that  not  only  they  shall  be  immediately 
put  at  liberty  and  kept  free — the  government  to  whom 
they  have  been  delivered  guaranteeing  the  same — but 
likewise  engaging  to  afford,  from  time  to  time  and  when- 
ever demanded  by  the  other  High  contracting  Party,  the 
lulleet  information  as  to  the  state  and  condition  of  such 
negroes  with  a  view  of  ensuring  the  due  execution  of  the 
treaty  in  this  respect. 

"  For  this  purpose  the  regulations  annexed  to  this  treaty 
sub  littera  C,  as  to  the  treatment  of  negroes  liberated  by 
sentence  of  the  mixed  courts  of  justice,  have  been  drawn 
up  and  are  declared  to  form  an  integral  part  of  this 
treaty. 

"  The  two  High  contracting  Parties  reserve  to  them- 
selves the  right  to  alter  or  suspend,  by  common  consent 
and  mutual  agreement,  but  not  otherwise,  the  terms  and 
tenor  of  such  regulations. 

"  Art.  XIV. — The  acts  or  instruments  annexed  to  this 
treaty  and  which,  it  is  mutually  agreed,  shall  form  an  in- 
tegral part  thereof,  are  as  follows  : 

"  A.  Instructions  for  the  ships  of  the  royal  navies  of 
both  nations,  destined  to  prevent  the  traffic  in  slaves. 

"B.  [Regulations  for  the  mixed  courts  of  justice,  which 
are  to  hold  their  sittings  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  in 
one  of  the  colonial  possessions  of  her  Catholic  Majesty. 

"  C.  Kegulations  as  to  the  treatment  of  liberated  ne- 
groes. 

"  Art.  XV. — The  present  treaty,  consisting  of  fifteen 
articles,  shall  be  ratified,  and  the  ratifications  thereof  ex- 
changed within  the  space  of  two  months  from  this  date, 
or  sooner  if  possible.  \ 

"  In  witness  whereof  the  respective  plenipotentiaries 
have  signed  in  duplicate,  two  originals,  English  and 
Spanish,  of  the  present  treaty,  and  have  thereunto  affixed 
the  seal  of  their  arms. 

"  Madrid,  this  twenty-eighth  day  of  June,  in  the  year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five. — (L.  S.) 
George  Villiers." 


121 

"ANNEX  A 

"TO  THE  TREATY  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN, 
FOR  THE  ABOLITION  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE,  OF  THE 
28TH  JUNE,  1835. 

"  Instructions  for  the  ships  of  the  British  and  Spanish 
royal  navies  employed  to  prevent  the  traffic  in  slaves. 

"  Article  I. — The  commander  of  any  ship  belonging  to 
the  royal  Brtish  or  Spanish  navy  which  shall  be  furnished 
with  these  instructions,  shall  have  a  right  to  search  and 
detain  any  British  or  Spanish  merchant  vessel,  which 
shall  be  actually  engaged  or  suspected  to  be  engaged  in 
the  slave  trade,  or  to  be  fitted  out  for  the  purposes  there- 
of; or  to  have  been  engaged  in  the  traffic  in  slaves  during 
the  voyage  in  which  she  may  be  met  with  by  such  ship  of 
the  British  or  Spanish  navy;  and  such  commander  shall 
thereupon  bring  or  send  such  merchant  vessel,  as  soon  as 
possible,  for  judgment  before  that  one  of  the  two  mixed 
courts  of  justice  established  in  virtue  of  the  seventh  article 
of  the  said  treaty,  which  shall  be  the  nearest  to  the  place 
of  detention,  or  which  such  commander  shall,  upon  his 
own  responsibility,  think  can  be  soonest  reached  from  such 
place. 

"Art.  II. — Whenever  a  ship  of  either  royal  navies,  duly 
authorized  as  aforesaid,  shall  meet  a  merchant  vessel  liable 
to  be  visited  under  the  provisions  of  said  treaty,  the  search 
shall  be  conducted  in  the  mildest  manner  and  with  every 
attention  which  ought  to  be  observed  between  allied  and 
friendly  nations,  and  the  search  shall,  in  all  cases,  be  made 
by  an  officer  holding  a  rank  not  lower  than  that  of  Lieute- 
nant in  the  navies  of  Great  Britain  and  Spain  respectively ; 
or  by  the  officer  who,  at  the  time,  shall  be  second  in  com- 
mand of  the  ship  by  which  such  search  is  made. 

"Art.  III. — The  commander  of  any  ship  of  the  royal 
navies,  duly  authorized  as  aforesaid,  who  may  detain  any 
merchant  vessel  in  pursuance  of  the  tenor  of  the  present 
instructions,  shall  leave,  on  board  the  vessel  so  detained, 
the  master,  the  mate  or  boatswain,  and  two  or  three,  at 
least,  of  the  crew  thereof;  the  whole  of  the  slaves,  if  any  ; 
and  all  the  cargo;  the  captor  shall,  at  the  time  of  deten- 
tion, draw  up,  in  writing,  an  authentic  declaration,  which 
shall  exhibit  the  state  in  which  he  found    the  detained 


122 

vessel  ;  such  declaration  to  be  signed  by  himself  and  to 
be  given  in  or  sent,  together  with  the  captured  vessel,  to 
the  mixed  court  of  justice  before  which  such  vessel  shall 
be  carried  or  sent  for  adjudication.  He  shall  deliver  to  the 
master  of  the  detained  vessel  a  signed  certificate  of  the 
papers  seized  on  board  the  same,  as  well  as  of  the  number 
of  slaves  found  on  board  at  the  moment  of  detention. 

"  In  the  authenticated  declaration  which  the  captor  is 
hereby  required  to  malce,  as  well  as  in  the  certificate  of 
the  papers  seized,  he  shall  insert  his  own  name  and  sur- 
name ;  the  name  of  the  capturing  ship  ;  the  latitude  and 
longitude  of  the  place  where  the  detention  shall  have 
taken  place;  and  the  number  of  slaves  found  on  board  of 
the  vessel  at  the  time  of  the  detention. 

"The  officer  in  charge  of  the  vessel  detained  shall,  at 
the  time  of  bringing  the  vessel's  papers  into  the  mixed 
court  of  justice,  deliver  into  the  court  a  paper  signed  by 
himself  and  verified  on  oath,  stating  the  changes  which 
have  taken  place  in  respect  to  the  vessel,  her  crew,  the 
slaves,  if  any,  and  her  cargo,  between  the  period  of  her 
detention  and  the  time  of  delivering  in  such  paper. 

"Art.  IV. — The  slaves  shall  not  be  disembarked  until 
after  the  vessel  shall  have  arrived  at  the  place  of  adjudi- 
cation, in  order  that,  in  the  event  of  the  vessel  not  being 
adjudged  legal  prize,  the  loss  of  the  proprietors  may  be 
more  easily  repaired  ;  and  even  after  the  arrival  of  the 
slaves  at  such  place,  they  are  not  to  be  landed  without  the 
permission  of  the  mixed  court  of  justice. 

"  But  if  urgent  reasons  arising  from  the  length  of  the 
voyage,  from  the  state  of  health  of  the  slaves,  or  from  any 
other  causes,  should  require  that  either  the  whole  or  a 
portion  of  the  negroes  should  be  disembarked  before  the 
vessel  can  arrive  at  the  place  at  which  one  of  the  said 
courts  is  established,  the  commander  of  the  capturing 
ship  may  take  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  so  dis- 
embarking the  negroes,  provided  that  the  necessity  of  the 
disembarkation  and  the  causes  thereof,  be  stated  in  a  cer- 
tificate in  proper  form,  and  provided  that  this  certificate 
shall  be  drawn  up  and  entered  at  the  time  on  the  logbook 
of  the  detained  vessel. 

"  The  undersigned  plenipotentiaries  have  agreed,  in 
conformity  with  the  fourteenth  article  of  the  treaty,  signed 
by  them  on  this  day,  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  of  1835, 


123 

that  the  present  instructions  shall  be  annexed  to  the  said 
treaty,  and  be  considered  an  integral  part  thereof. 

"  This  day,  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  in  the  year  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five. — (L.  S.)  George 
Villiers." 


"ANNEX  B 

"to  the  treaty  between  great  britain  and  spain, 
for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  of  the 
28th  of  june,  1835. 

"  Regulations  for  the  mixed  courts  of  justice  which  are  to 
reside  on  the  coast  of  Africa  and  in  a  colonial  posses- 
sion of  her  Catholic  Majesty. 

"Art.  I. — The  mixed  courts  of  justice  to  be  established 
under  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  which  these  regula- 
tions are  declared  to  be  an  integral  part,  shall  be  com- 
posed in  the  following  manner: 

"The  two  high  contracting  Parties  shall  each  of  them 
name  a  judge  and  an  Arbitrator,  who  ehall  be  authorized 
to  hear  and  decide,  without  appeal,  all  cases  of  capture  or 
detention  of  vessels  which,  in  pursuance  of  the  stipula- 
tions of  the  aforesaid  treaty,  shall  be  brought  before 
them. 

"The  judges  and  the  arbitrators  shall,  before  they  enter 
upon  the  duties  of  their  office,  respectively  make  oath  be- 
fore the  principal  magistrate  of  the  place  in  which  such 
courts  respectively  shall  reside;  that  they  will  judge  fairly 
and  faithfully ;  that  they  will  have  no  preference  either 
for  the  claimant  or  for  the  captors,  and  that  they  will  act 
in  all  their  decisions  in  pursuance  of  the  stipulations  of 
the  aforesaid  treaty. 

"  There  shall  be  attached  to  each  of  such  courts  a  secre- 
tary or  registrar,  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  sovereign 
in  whose  territories  such  court  shall  reside. 

"  Such  secretary  or  registrar  shall  register  all  the  acts 
of  such  court,  and  shall,  before  he  enters  upon  his  office, 
make  oath  before  the  court  to  which  he  is  appointed,  that 
he  will  conduct  himself  with  due  respect  fqjr  its  authority, 
and  will  act  with  fidelity  and  impartiality  in  all  matters 
relating  to  his  said  office. 


124 

"  The  salary  of  the  secretary  or  registrar  of  the  court  to 
be  established  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  shall  be  paid  by  his 
Britannic  Majesty,  and  that  of  the  secretary  or  registrar  of 
the  court  to  be  established  in  the  colonial  possessions  of 
Spain  shall  be  paid  by  her  Catholic  Majesty. 

"  Each  of  the  two  governments  shall  defray  half  of  the 
aggregate  amount  of  the  expenses  of  such  courts. 

"  Art.  II. — The  expenses  incurred  by  the  officer  charged 
with  the  reception,  maintenance  and  care  of  the  detained 
vessel,  slaves  and  cargo,  and  with  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  ;  and  all  disbursements  occasioned  by  bringing  a 
vessel  to  adjudication  shall,  in  case  of  condemnation,  be 
defrayed  from  the  funils  arising  out  of  the  sale  of  the 
vessel,  after  the  vessel  shall  have  been  broken  up  ;  of  the 
ship's  stores  and  of  such  parts  of  the  cargo  as  shall  con- 
sist of  merchandize.  And  in  case  the  proceeds  arising  out 
of  this  sale  shall  not  prove  sufficient  to  defray  such  ex- 
penses, the  deficiency  shall  be  made  good  by  the  govern- 
ment of  th.e  country  within  whose  territories  the  adjudica- 
tion shall  have  taken  place. 

"  If  the  detained  vessel  shall  be  released,  the  expenses 
occasioned  by  bringing  her  to  adjudication  shall  be  de- 
frayed by  the  captors,  except  in  the  cases  specified  and 
otherwise  provided  for  under  article  the  eleventh  of  the 
treaty  to  which  these  regulations  form  an  annex,  and 
under  article  the  seventh  of  these  regulations. 

"Art.  III. — The  mixed  courts  of  justice  are  to  decide 
upon  the  legality  of  the  detention  of  such  vessels  as  the 
cruizers  of  either  nation  shall  in  pursuance  of  the  said 
treaty  detain. 

"  These  courts  shall  judge  definitively  and  without  ap- 
peal, all  questions  which  shall  arise  out  of  the  capture  and 
detention  of  such  vessels. 

"  The  proceedings  of  these  courts  shall  take  place  as 
summarily  as  possible  ;  and  for  this  purpose  the  courts 
are  required  to  decide  each  case  as  far  as  may  be  practica- 
ble, within  the  space  of  twenty  days,  to  be  dated  from  the 
day  on  which  the  detained  vessel  shall  have  been  brought 
into  the  port  where  the  deciding  court  shall  reside. 

"  The  final  sentence  shall  not,  in  any  case,  be  delayed 
beyond  the  period  of  two  months,  whether  on  account  of 
the  absence  of  witnesses  or  for  any  other  cause,  except 
upon  the  application  of  any  of  the  parties  interested;  but 


i 


125 

in  that  case,  upon  such  party  or  parties  giving  satisfactory 
security  that  they  will  take  upon  themselves  the  expense 
and  risks  of  the  delay,  the  courts  may,  at  their  discretion, 
grant  an  additional  delay,  not  exceeding  four  months. 

"  Either  party  shall  be  allowed  to  employ  such  counsel 
as  he  may  think  fit  to  assist  him  in  the  conduct  of  his 
cause. 

"All  the  acts  and  essential  parts  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  said  courts  shall  be  written  down  in  the  language  of 
the  country  in  which  the  courts  shall  respectively  reside. 

"Art.  IV. — The  form  of  the  process  or  naode  of  pro- 
ceeding to  judgment  shall  be  as  follows  : 

"  The  judges  appointed  by  the  two  nations  respectively 
shall,  in  the  first  place,  proceed  to  examine  the  papers  of 
the  detained  vessel,  and  shall  take  the  depositions  of  the 
master  or  commander,  and  of  two  or  three  at  least  of  the 
principal  individuals  on  board  of  such  vessel ;  and  shall 
also  take  the  declaration  on  oath  of  the  captor,  if  it  should 
appear  to  them  necessary  to  do  so  in  order  to  judge  and 
to  pronounce  whether  the  said  vessel  has  been  justly  de- 
tained or  not,  according  to  the  stipulations  of  the  afore- 
said treaty  ;  and  in  order  that,  according  to  this  judg- 
ment, the  vessel  may  be  condemned  or  released.  In  the 
event  of  the  two  judges  not  agreeing  as  to  the  sentence 
which  they  ought  to  pronounce  in  any  case  brought  before 
them,  whether  with  respect  to  the  legality  of  the  deten- 
tion, or  the  liability  of  the  vessel  to  condemnation,  or  to 
the  indemnification  to  be  allowed,  or  as  to  any  other  ques- 
tion which  may  arise  out  of  the  said  capture,  or  in  case 
any  difference  of  opinion  should  arise  between  them  as  to 
the  mode  of  proceeding  in  the  said  Court,  they  shall  draw 
by  lot  the  name  of  one  of  the  two  arbitrators  so  appointed 
as  aforesaid,  which  arbitrator,  after  having  considered  the 
proceedings  which  have  taken  place,  shall  consult  with 
the  two  above  mentioned  judges  on  the  case,  and  the  final 
sentence  or  decision  shall  be  pronounced  conformably  to 
the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  three. 

Art.  V. — If  the  detained  vessel  shall  be  restored  by  the 
sentence  of  the  court  the  vessel  and  the  cargo,  in  the  state 
in  which  they  shall  then  be  found,  shall  fortwith  be  given 
up  to  the  master  or  to  the  person  who  represents  him;  and 
such  master  or  other  person  may,  before  the  same  court, 
claim  a  valuation  of  the  damages  which  he  may  have  a 


126 

right  to  demand.  '  The  captor  himself,  and  in  his  default 
his  government,  shall  remain  responsible  for  the  damages 
to  which  the  master  of  such  vessel  or  the  owners,  either 
of  the  vessel  or  of  her  cargo  may  be  pronounced  to  be  en- 
titled. - 

"  The  two  high  contracting  parties  bind  themselves  to 
pay  within  the  term  of  a  year  from  the  date  of  the  sen- 
tence, the  costs  and  damages  which  may  be  awarded  by 
the  above  named  court ;  it  being  mutually  understood  and 
agreed  that  such  costs  and  damages  shall  be  made  good 
by  the  government  of  the  country  of  which  the  captor  shall 
be  a  subject. 

"Art.  VI. — If  the  detained  vessel  shall  be  condemned, 
she  shall  be  declared  lawful  prize,  together  with  her  cargo, 
of  whatever  description  it  may  be,  with  the  exception 'of 
the  slaves  who  shall  have  been  brought  on  board  for  the 
purposes  of  commerce,  and  the  said  vessel,  subject  to  the 
regulations  in  article  twelfth  of  the  treaty  of  this  date, 
shall,  as  well  as  her  cargo,  be  sold  by  public  sale  for  the 
profit  of  the  two  governments,  subject  to  the  payment  of 
the  expenses  hereinafter  mentioned. 

"  The  slaves  shall  receive  from  the  court  a  certificate  of 
emancipation,  and  shall  be  delivered  over  to  the  govern- 
ment to  whom  the  cruizer  which  made  the  capture  belongs, 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  the  regulations  and  condi- 
tions contained  in  tlie  Annex  to  this  treaty,  sub  littera  C. 

"  Art.  VII. — The  mixed  courts  of  justice  shall  also  take 
cognizance  of,  and  shall  decide  definitively  and  without 
appeal,  all  claims  for  compensation  on  account  of  losses 
occasioned  to  vessels  and  cargoes  which  shall  have  been 
detained  under  the  provisions  of  this  treaty,  but  which 
shall  not  have  been  condemned  as  legal  prize  by  the  said 
courts  ;  and  in  all  cases  wherein  restitution  of  such  vessels 
and  cargoes  shall  be  decreed,  save  as  mentioned  in  article 
eleventh  of  the  treaty  to  which  these  regulations  form  an 
Annex,  and  in  a  subsequent  part  of  these  regulations  the 
court  shall  award  to  the  claimant  or  claimants,  or  to  his 
or  to  their  lawful  attorney  or  attornies,  for  his  or  their 
use,  a  just  and  complete  indemnification  for  all  costs  of 
suit,  and  for  all  losses  and  damages  which  the  owner  or 
owners  may  have  actually  sustained  by  such  capture  and 
detention;  and  it  is  agreed  that  the  indemnification  shall 
be  as  follows  : 


\ 


127 

"  First.     In  case  of  total  losses, 

"  The  claimant  or  claimants  shall  be  indemnified: 

"A.     For  the  ship,  her  tackle,  equipment  and  stores. 

"B.     For  all  freights  due  and  payable. 

"C.  For  the  value  of  the  cargo  of  merchandise,  if  any, 
deducting  all  charges  and  expenses  payable  upon  the  sale 
of  such  cargo,  including  the  commission  of  sale. 

"D.  For  all  other  regular  charges  in  such,  case  of  total 
loss. 


i 


u  Secondly.  In  all  other  cases  (save  as  hereinafter  men- 
tioned) not  of  total  loss,  the  claimant  or  claimants  shall 
be  indemnified: 

"A.  i  For  all  special  damages  and  expenses  occasioned 
to  the  ship  by  the  detention,  and  for  loss  of  freight,  when 
due  or  payable. 

UB.  For  demurrage  when  due,  according  to  the  sche- 
dule annexed  to  the  present  article. 

"C.     For  any  deterioration  of  the  cargo. 

UD.    For  all  premium  of  insurance  on  additional  risks. 

"  The  claimant  or  claimants  shall  be  entitled  to  interest 
at  the  rate  of  five  per  cent  per  annum  on  the  sum  award- 
ed, until  such  sum  is  paid  by  the  Government  to  which 
the  capturing  ship  belongs.  The  whole  amount  of  such 
indemnifications  shall  be  calculated  in  the  money  of  the 
country  to  which  the  detained  vessel  belongs,  and  shall  be 
liquidated  at  the  exchange  current  at  the  time  of  the 
award. 

"  The  two  High  contracting  Parties,  however,  have 
agreed  that  if  it  shall  be  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
Judges  of  the  two  Nations,  and  without  having  recourse 
to  the  decision  of  an  arbitrator,  that  the  captor  has  been 
led  into  error  by  the  fault  of  the  master  or  commander  of 
the  detained  vessel,  the  detained  vessel,  in  that  case,  shall 
not  have  the  right  of  receiving,  for  the  time  of  her  deten- 
tion,-the  demurrage  stipulated  by  the  present  article,  nor 
any  other  compensation  for  losses,  damages  or  expenses, 
consequent  upon  such  detention. 


128 


"  Schedule 

OF    DEMURRAGE 

;,   or  daily  allowance  for  a 

vessel  of 

100 

tons 

to  120 

inclusive,     5  £s. 

121 

ditto 

to  150 

ditto         6  " 

151 

ditto 

to  170 

ditto         8 

►d 

171 

ditto 

to  200 

ditto     s  10 

CD 

201 

ditto 

to  220 

ditto       11 

*    Pj 

221 

ditto 

to  250 

ditto       12 

B 

• 

251 

ditto 

to  270 

ditto       14 

271 

ditto 

to  300 

ditto       15 

and  so  on  in  proportion. 

"Art.  VIII. — Neither  the  Judges,  nor  the  Arbitrators, 
nor  the  Secretaries  of  the  mixed  Courts  of  justice,  shall 
demand  or  receive,  from  any  of  the  parties  concerned  in 
the  cases  which  shall  be  brought  before  such  Courts,  any 
emolument  or  gift  under  any  pretext  whatsoever,  for  the 
performance  of  the  duties  which  such  Judges,  Arbitrators 
and  Secretaries  have  to  perform. 

"Art.  IX. — The  two  High  contracting  Parties  have 
agreed  that,  in  the  event  of  death,  sickness,  absence  on 
leave,  or  any  other  legal  impediment,  of  one  or  more  of  the 
Judges  or  Arbitrators  composing  the  above  mentioned 
Courts  respectively,  the  post  of  such  Judge  and  of  such 
Arbitrator  shall  be  supplied  ad  interim  in  the  following 
manner: 

"1st.  On  the  part  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  and  in 
that  Court  which  shall  sit  within  the  possessions  of  His 
said  Majesty,  if  the  vacancy  be  that  of  the  British  Judge, 
his  place  shall  be  filled  by  the  British  Arbitrator,  and  either 
in  that  case  or  in  the  case  where  the  vacancy  be  originally 
that  of  the  British  Arbitrator,  the  place  of  such  Arbitra- 
tor shall  be  filled  successively  by  the  Governor  or  Lieute- 
nant Governor  resident  in  such  possession,  by  the  princi- 
pal Magistrate  of  the  same,  and  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Government;  and  the  said  Court,  so  constituted  as  above, 
shall  sit  and,  in  all  cases  brought  before  them  for  adjudi- 
cation, shall  proceed  to  adjudge  the  same,  and  to  pass  sen- 
tence accordingly. 

"  Secondly.  On  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  that 
Court  which  shall  sit  within  the  possessions  of  Her  Ca- 
tholic Majesty,  if  the  vacancy  be  that  of  the  British  Judge, 
his  place  shall  be  filled  by  the   British  Arbitrator;  and 


( 


129 

either  in  that  case  or  in  the  case  where  the  vacancy  be 
originally  that  of  the  British  Arbitrator,  his  place  shall 
be  filled  successively  by  the  British  Consul  and  British 
Vice  Consul,  if  there  be  a  British  Consul  or  British  Vice 
Consul  appointed  to,  and  resident  in  such  possession;  and 
in  the  case  where  the  vacancy  be  both  of  the  British 
Judge  and  of  the  British  Arbitrator,  then  the  vacancy  of 
the  British  Judge  shall  be  filled  by  the  British  Consul, 
and  that  of  the  British  Arbitrator  by  the  British  Vice 
Consul,  if  there  be  a  British  Consul  and  British  Vice  Con- 
sul appointed  to,  and  resident  in  such  possession;  and  if 
there  shall  be  no  British  Consul  or  British  Vice  Consul  to 
fill  the  place  of  British  Arbitrator,  then  the  Spanish  Ar- 
bitrator shall  be  called  in,  in  those  cases  in  which  a  Bri- 
tish Arbitrator,  were  there  any,  would  be  called  in;  and 
in  case  the  vacancy  be,  both  of  the  British  Judge  and  Bri- 
tish Arbitrator,  and  there  be  neither  British  Consul  nor 
British  Vice  Consul  to  fill  ad  interim  the  vacancies,  then 
the  Spanish  Judge  and  Spanish  Arbitrator  shall  sit,  and, 
in  all  cases  brought  before  them  for  adjudication,  shall 
proceed  to  adjudge  the  same,  and  pass  sentence  accordingly. 

"  Thirdly.  On  the  part  of  Spain,  and  in  that  Court 
which  shall  sit  within  the  possessions  of  Her  Catholic  Ma- 
jesty, if  the  vacancy  be  that  of  the  Spanish  Arbitrator, 
and  either  in  that  case  or  in  the  case  where  the  vacancy 
be  originally  that  of  the  Spanish  Judge,  his  place  shall  be 
filled  by  the  Spanish  Arbitrator,  the  place  of  such  Arbi- 
trator shall  be  rilled  successively  by  the  Governor  or  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  resident  in  such  possession,  by  the  prin- 
cipal Magistrate  of  the  same,  and  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Government,  and  the  said  Court,  so  constituted  as  above, 
shall  sit,  and,  in  all  cases  brought  before  them  for  adjudi- 
cation, shall  proceed  to  adjudge  the  same,  and  pass  sen- 
tence accordingly. 

"  Fourthly.  On  the  part  of  Spain  and  in  that  Court 
which  shall  sit  within  the  possessions  of  His  Britannic 
Majesty,  if  the  vacancy  be  that  of  the  Spanish  Judge,  his 
place  shall  be  filled  by  the  Spanish  Arbitrator,  and  either 
in  that  case  or  in  the  case  where  the  vacancy  be  originally 
that  of  the  Spanish  Arbitrator,  his  place  shall  be  filled 
successively  by  the  Spanish  Consul  and  Spanish  Vice  Con- 
sul, if  there  be  a  Spanish  Consul  or  Spanish  Vice  Consul 
appointed  to,  and  resident  in  such  possession;  and  in  the 


130 

case  where  the  vacancy  be  both  of  the  Spanish  Judge  and 
of  the  Spanish  Arbitrator,  then  the  vacancy  of  the  Judge 
shall  be  filled  by  the  Spanish  Consul,  and  that  of  the 
Spanish  Arbitrator  by  the  Spanish  Vice  Consul,  if  there 
be  a  Spanish  Consul  and  Spanish  Vice  Consul  appointed 
to,  and  resident  in  such  possession;  and  in  that  case  in 
which  there  be  no  Spanish  Consul  or  Spanish  Vice  Consul 
to  fill  the  place  of  Spanish  Arbitrator,  then  the  British 
Arbitrator  shall  be  called  in,  in  those  cases  in  which  a 
Spanish  Arbitrator,  were  there  any,  would  be  called  in; 
and  in  case  the  vacancy  be  both  of  the  Spanish  Judge  and 
Spanish  Arbitrator,  and  there  be  neither  Spanish  Consul 
nor  Spanish  Vice  Consul  to  fill  ad  interim  the  vacancies, 
then  the  British  Judge  and  the  British  Arbitrator  shall 
sit,  and,  in  all  cases  brought  before  them  for  adjudication, 
shall  proceed  to  adjudge  the  same,  and  pass  sentence  ac- 
cordingly. 

"  The  Governor  or  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  settle- 
ments wherein  either  of  the  mixed  Courts  of  justice  shall 
sit,  in  the  event  of  a  vacancy  arising  either  of  the  Judge 
or  the  Arbitrator  of  the  other  High  contracting  Party, 
shall  fortwith  give  notice  of  the  same  to  the  Governor 
or  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  nearest  settlement  of  such 
other  High  contracting  Party,  in  order  that  such  va- 
cancy may  be  supplied  at  the  earliest  possible  period. 
And  each  of  the  High  contracting  Parties  agrees  to  sup- 
ply definitively,  as  soon  as  possible,  the  vacancies  which 
may  arise  in  the  above  mentioned  Courts  from  death  or 
from  any  other  cause  whatever. 

"  The  undersigned  Plenipotentiaries  have  agreed,  in 
conformity  with  the  fourteenth  article  of  the  Treaty  sign- 
ed by  them  on  this  day  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  1835, 
that  the  preceding  Kegulations,  consisting  of  nine  arti- 
cles, shall  be  annexed  to  the  said  Treaty,  and  considered 
as  an  integral  part  thereof. 

"  This  day  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  in  the  year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five. — (  L.  S.  ) 
George  VrLLiEES." 


\ 


131 

"ANNEX  C. 
"Begulations  for  the  good  treatment  of  liberated  negroes. 

"Art.  I. — The  object  and  spirit  of  these  regulations  is 
to  secure  to  negroes  liberated  by  virtue  of  the  stipula- 
tions of  the  Treaty  to  which  these  regulations  form  an 
annex  (marked  C.)  permanent  good  treatment  and  a  full 
and  complete  emancipation,  in  conformity  with  the  hu- 
mane intentions  of  the  High  contracting  Parties. 

"Art.  II. — Immediately  after  sentence  of  condemnation 
on  a  vessel  charged  with  being  concerned  in  illegal  slave 
trade,  shall  have  been  passed  by  the  mixed  Court  of  jus- 
tice established  under  the  Treaty  to  which  these  regula- 
tions form  an  annex,  all  negroes  who  were  on  board  of 
such  vessel  and  who  were  brought  on  board  for  the  pur- 
pose of  traffic,  shall  be  delivered  over  to  the  Government 
to  whom  belongs  the  cruizer  which  made  the  capture. 

"Art.  III. — If  the  cruizer  which  made  the  capture  is 
English,  the  British  Goverment  engages  that  the  negroes 
shall  be  treated  in  exact  conformity  with  the  laws  in  force 
in  the  British  Colonies  for  the  regulation  of  free  appren- 
ticed negroes. 

"Art.  IV. — If  the  cruizer  which  made  the  capture  is 
Spanish,  in  this  case  the  negroes  shall  be  delivered  to  the 
Spanish  authorities  of  the  Havanah  or  of  any  other  point 
of  the  Dominions  of  the  Queen  of  Spain  in  which  the  mix- 
ed Court  of  justice  is  established,  and  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment solemnly  engages  that  they  shall  be  there  treated 
strictly  according  to  the  regulations  lately  promulgated, 
and  now  actually  in  force  at  the  Havanah,  with  respect 
to  the  treatment  of  emancipated  negroes,  or  according  to 
such  regulations  as  may  in  future  be  adopted,  and  which 
have  and  shall  always  have  the  humane  object  of  improv- 
ing and  securing  honestly  and  faithfully  to  the  emancipa- 
ted negroes  the  enjoyment  of  their  acquired  liberty,  good 
treatment,  a  knowledge  of  the  tenets  of  tjie  Christian  re- 
ligion, their  advancement  in  morality  and  civilization,  and 
their  sufficient  instruction  in  the  mechanical  arts,  in  order 
that  the  said  emancipated  negroes  may  be  put  in  a  condi- 
tion to  earn  their  subsistence,  whether  as  artisans,  me- 
chanics or  servants. 

"  Art.  V. — For  the  purpose  which  is  explained  in 
article  six  there  shall  be  kept  in  the  office  of  the  Captain 


132 

General  or  Governor  of  the  part  of  the  dominions  of  the 
Queen  of  Spain  where  the  mixed  court  of  justice  resides, 
a  register  of  all  the  emancipated  negroes,  in  which  shall 
be  entered  with  scrupulous  exactness  the  names  given  to 
the  negroes,  the  names  of  the  vessels  in  which  they  were 
captured,  the  names  of  the  persons  to  whose  care  they 
have  been  committed,  and  any  other  circumstance  likely 
to  contribute  to  the  end  in  view. 

"  Art.  VI. — The  register  to  which  the  preceding  article 
refers  will  serve  to  form  a  general  return  which  the  Go- 
vernor or  Captain  General  of  the  part  of  the  dominions  of 
the  Queen  of  Spain,  where  the  mixed  court  of  justice  re- 
sides, shall  be  bound  to  deliver  every  six  months  to  the 
aforesaid  mixed  commission,  in  order  to  show  the  exist- 
ence of  the  negroes  emancipated  under  this  treaty,  the 
decease  of  such  as  have  died,  the  improvement  in  their 
condition,  and  the  progress  made  in  their  instruction,  both 
religious  and  moral,  as  also  in  the  arts  of  life. 

"  Art.  VII. — As  the  principal  object  of  the  treaty,  of 
which  the  present  annex  forms  an  integral  part,  is  no 
other  than  that  of  improving  the  condition  of  these  un- 
happy victims  of  avarice,  the  high  contracting  parties, 
animated  with  the  same  sentiments  of  humanity,  agree, 
that  if  in  future  it  should  appear  necessary  to  adopt  new 
measures  for  obtaining  the  said  benevolent  end,  in  conse- 
quence of  those  laid  down  in  this  annex  turning  out  in- 
efficacious, the  said  high  contracting  parties  will  consult 
together  and  agree  upon  other  means  better  adapted  for 
the  complete  attainment  of  the  object  proposed. 

"  Art.  VIII. — The  undersigned  plenipotentiaries  have 
agreed,  in  conformity  with  the  fourteenth  article  of  the 
treaty  signed  by  them  on  this  da}',  the  28th  of  June, 
1835,  that  this  annex,  consisting  of  eight  articles,  shall 
be  united  to  the  said  treaty  and  be  considered  an  integral 
part  thereof. 

"  This  day,  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  in  tne  year  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five. — (L.  S.)  George 
Vilijers." 

Before  entering  into  an  analysis  of  the  spirit  and  prac- 
tical consequences  of  this  international  compact,  I  shall 
here  take  up  the  history  of  the  official  and  extra  official 
labors  which  the  abolitionists  continued  to  pursue  in  the 
colonial  nations  and  in  the  colonies  themselves 


\ 


CHAPTER  Vlt 


The  system  of  apprenticeship  instituted  by  the  English  in  their  Colonies 
by  way  of  experiment  as  a  substitute  for  slavery. — Character  of  said  sys- 
tem and  its  negative  results. — Considerations  on  the  political  ends  which 
suggested  such  a  system. — Uniform  efforts  of  all  the  English  agents  to 
annihilate  the  slavery  of  the  negroes  in  the  other  Colonies. — This  system 
propagated  in  France. — The  Colonies  are  officially  consulted  as  to  the 
freedom  of  the  slaves. — Three  systems  are  proposed  by  the  French  gov- 
ernment to  its  Colonies. — Analysis  and  judgment  of  said  systems. — Replies 
of  the  French  Colonies  to  the  consultation  of  the  government. — The  Re- 
public of  1848  decrees  the  freedom  of  the  slaves. — Operations  of  the  abo- 
litionists in  Spain. — A  ship  of  war  manned  by  negroes  is  permanently  sta- 
tioned in  the  harbor  of  Havana. — The  press  is  set  to  work. — They  succeed 
in  obtaining  that  the  Spanish  government  should  consult  the  Colonies  on 
some  points  of  abolitionism. — Evident  tendencies  to  make  the  Island  of 
Cuba  a  State  similar  to  that  of  Haiti. — Charges  and  defences  of  the  facts 
stated. — Remarkable  letter  of  Lord  Howden  to  Mr.  Corbin:  some  erro- 
neous statements  containing  offensive  allusions  to  Spain  are  rectified. — 
New  steps  taken  by  said  minister  at  Madrid  to  obtain  the  unconditional 
freedom  of  all  the  people  of  color  in  the  Island  of  Cuba. — Lord  Palmer- 
ston's  despatch  to  Lord  Howden  on  the  same  subject. — System  of  diplo- 
matic and  parliamentary  recriminations.  To  introduce  disorder  in  the  co- 
lonial possessions  of  Spain,  the  right  of  search  on  the  estates  is  proposed. 
— Important  considerations  on  all  these  matters. — The  .English  recom- 
mend the  substitution  of  the  negroes  by  contracted  Chinese. — Reply  of 
the  United  States  to  said  proposition. 


I  have  said  that  the  success  of  the  abolitionists  in  com- 
mitting all  the  colonial  nations  to  an  agreement  for  the 
abolition  of  the  redemption  of  Africans,  was  a  gigantic 


134 

step  towards  the  fulfilment  of  their  aspirations,  and  such 
it  will  undoubtedly  appear  to  all  if  they  will  but  consider 
that  this  agreement,  founded  as  it  was  on  a  principle  of 
true  humanity,  was,  from  the  misapplication  of  that  prin- 
ciple, destined  to  produce  ulterior  consequences  of  the 
most  transcendental  nature,  and  that,  too,  at  no  very  dis- 
tant period. 

Its  most  immediate  result  was  the  complete  ruin  of  the 
English  colonies  of  the  New  World,  which  could  not  be 
averted,  or  even  delayed,  by  the  most  consummate  forecast 
nor  by  the  most  scrupulous  care  in  carrying  out  the  new 
experiment  which  was  intended  to  prepare  the  way  for  a 
reasonable  freedom. 

The  law  which  abolished  slavery  contemplated  its  sub- 
stitution by  an  apprenticeship  which  was  to  last  some 
years,  during  which  the  negroes  who  were  to  be  eman- 
cipated remained  subject  to  their  former  masters  as  to 
labor  and  discipline,  and  also  as  to  their  earnings  in  their 
respective  trades.  And  in  order  that  the  collective  or  in- 
dividual action  of  those  indispensable  productive  agents 
of  property  should  not  be  weakened  by  the  ideas  which 
their  new  civil  state  might  suggest  to  them,  the  aforesaid 
emancipation  law,  setting  aside  all  the  consideration  for 
the  sentiment  which  had  given  it  birth,  and  mindful  only 
of  the  true  character  of  the  negroes,  yielding  rather  to 
the  existing  state  of  things  than  to  the  fanaticism  of 
absolute  theories,  confirmed  to  the  masters  the  right  which 
they  formerly  had  as  owners,  of  inflicting  corporeal  punish- 
ment on  the  apprentices,  in  the  same  manner  and  with  as 
much  vigor  as  though  they  were  slaves. 

Any  one  might  venture  to  affirm  that  with  a  measure 
of  so  much  foresight,  labor  would  not  degenerate  in  the 
English  colonies  until  after  the  expiration  of  the  term  of 
apprenticeship  ;  nevertheless,  such  an  assertion,  though 
entirely  logical  and  very  natural  according  to  all  the  rules 
of  common  sense,  would  be  but  a  gross  and  evident  his- 
torical falsehood.  For,  whether  the  fundamental  spirit  of 
the  law  had  infused  itself  in  the  minds  of  the  negroes 
with  more  impulsive  force  than  is  to  be  surmised,N  or  whe- 
ther by  means  of  the  law  itself  the  most  fanatical  aboli- 
tionists conveyed  the  propagation  of  their  doctrines  to  the 
colonies,  the  fact  is  that  the  labor  of  the  apprentices  be- 


v 


135 

came  immediately  unproductive  to  their  masters,  who, 
seeing  themselves  burdened  with  the  maintenance  and  all 
the  other  expenses  attending  the  keeping  of  these  miser- 
able beings,  after  having  been  more  or  less  sureptitiously 
deprived  of  their  property,  hastened  to  get  rid  of  them 
when  scarcely  four  years  had  elapsed,  willingly  relinquish- 
ing all  the  favorable  provisions  of  the  law,  solely  with  the 
very  justifiable  end  of  not  completing  their  own  ruin. 

This  brought  about  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  negroes 
in  the  English  colonies,  which  thenceforward  became  a 
bug-bear  to  the  others,  on  account  of  the  bad  ex- 
ample they  set  to  the  negroes  who  were  still  slaves,  and 
also  from  the  jealousy  which  was  engendered  by  the  con- 
trast between  their  own  ruin  and  the  ever  increasing  pros- 
perity of  the  other  colonies. 

From  these  premises,  then,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  deduce, 
nor  should  any  one  be  astonished  at  the  fact  affirmed  by 
so  many  writers  and  orators,  viz.,  that  England,  having 
effected  the  ruin  of  her  West  Indian  possessions,  and  de- 
voted her  attention  to  the  East  Indies,  formed  the  purpose 
of  carrying  out  the  abolition  idea  by  making  every  ima- 
ginable effort  to  extinguish  the  slavery  of  the  negroes 
wheresoever  it  might  exist,  in  order  to  destroy  all  compe- 
tition with  her  East  Indian  productions.  And  if  it  be 
true  that  the  policy  of  that  nation  originated  in  this  ex- 
clusive tendency,  as  a  number  of  events  have  shown  it  to 
be  probable,  it  is  evident  that  England  does  not  deserve 
the  bijtter  reproaches  lavished  upon  her,  aside  from  those 
errors  and  illegalities  which  her  agents  have  committed 
through  excess  of  zeal  and  from  want  of  knowledge. 

As  long  as  the  cosmopolitan  idea  is  confined  to  the  de- 
sire of  some  few  individuals,  and  is  not  a  universal  senti- 
ment identified  with  moral  interests,  blotting  out  inter- 
vening boundaries,  giving  unity  to  all  languages,  and  des- 
troying individual  nationalities,  it  is  absurd  to  condemn  a 
uniform  policy  maintained  by  a  nation  who  aims  at  her 
own  agrandizernent  at  the  expense  of  others,  so  long  as 
she  does  not  succeed  by  unlawful  means  or  by  disregard- 
ing public  rights. 

For  this  reason  I,  who  extenuate  the  motives  of  such 
things  as  the  rest  of  us  would  do  if  we  knew  how,  am 
more  apt  to  condemn  whatever  is  contrary  to  the  senti- 


136 

ment  that  tries  to  exalt  itself  in  the  minds  of  all,  and  for 
this  reason,  also,  on  entering  fully  and  candidly  into  the 
analysis  of  the  absolute  emancipation  of  the  negroes  and 
of  the  prevention  of  their  redemption,  I  will  condemn 
with  freedom  and  energy,  and  within  the  bounds  of  truth, 
all  that  is  contrary  to  the  moral  end  which  should  be  the 
positive  and  unfeigned  rule  of  the  abolitionists. 

From  that  time  it  was  a  permanent  rule  for  all  English 
agents,  both  diplomatic  and  consular,  in  other  nations  and 
especially  in  the  colonies,  to  make  every  possible  effort 
within  the  law,  of  course,  to  obtain  daily  some  addi- 
tional concession  towards  the  freedom  of  the  slaves.  And 
in  honor  of  truth  it  may  be  said  that  no  idea  in  the 
world  was  ever  better  served  than  that  of  emancipation 
has  been  by  the  agents  of  England. 

What  these  agents  did  both  in  the  colonies  and  their 
respective  scenes  of  action  to  arrive  at  the  desired  end, 
would  furnish  sufficient  matter  to  fill  an  endless  number 
of  volumes.  On  the  slightest  suspicion  of  the  transgres- 
sion of  the  treaties  by  individuals  who  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  authorities  or  with  the  laws,  and  which  were 
frequently  imaginary,  they  made  the  most  serious  charges 
against  the  countries.  And  in  the  political  disturbances 
which,  in  the  present  century,  have  agitated  France  and 
Spain,  in  the  midst  of  revolutions  and  of  less  radical 
commotion,  there  was  not  an  insurrection  which  the 
agents  of  Great  Britain  did  not  avail  themselves  to  in- 
culcate the.  ideas  of  emancipation  in  the  minds  of  the 
rulers,  in  the  tendencies  of  the  insurgents,  or  in  the  minds 
of  the  public  speakers. 

In  France,  previous  to  the  revolution  of  1848,  three  men 
at  the  height  of  power,  three  statesmen  of  more  reputation 
than  circumspection,  in  short,  three  ministers  of  the  mon- 
archy of  Louis  Philippe,  Roussin,  Thiers,  and  G-uizot,  had 
already  been  made  to  declare  that  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  in  the  French  colonies  was  legally  decided  in  the 
affirmative.  And  although,  in  Spain,  all  the  successive 
governments  had  maintained  their  independence  within 
the  limits  of  existing  treaties,  nevertheless  there  were  not 
wanting  authorities  of  the  first  order  who,  carrying  the 
susceptibility  of  their  character  to  an  extreme  highly  ho- 
norable to  themselves,  but  very  dangerous  to  the  respect 


\ 


137 

due  to  the  authorities  and  to  the  established  law,  not  only 
exercised  the  vigilance  on  the  coasts  as  actively  and  strict- 
ly as  did  their  predecessors,  but,  overstepping  all  proper 
bounds,  made  searches  pn  the  plantations,  and  granted 
new  concessions  to  the  slaves  for  the  purpose  of  prevent- 
ing the  fraudulent  importation  of  Bozal  negroes,  and,  also, 
to  substitute  for  forced  labor  a  new  system  of  apprentice- 
ship. 

And  the  fact  is  that  the  words  of  those  high  function- 
aries of  France  in  the  times  of  Louis  Philippe  did  not 
constitute  an  isolated  idea,  nor  simply  a  mere  transitory 
concession  to  the  sentiments  of  some  orators.  When  the 
deputies  Passy,  Tracy  and  Tocqueville  decided  to  petition 
the  French  parliament  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  and 
successively  wrested  these  declarations  from  the  ministers, 
the  London  Anti- Slavery  Society  had  already  instituted  a 
branch  of  their  own  in  Paris,  founded  entirely  on  French 
principles,  having  as  president  M.  de  Broglie,  and  com- 
manding the  suffrages  of  said  capital  and  of  the  cities  of 
Saint-Quentin,  Rouen,  Havre,  Nantes,  Bordeaux,  Bayonne, 
Toulouse,  Lyons  and  Marseilles.  /And  by  that  time,  not 
only  was  the  propagation  spreading  rapidly  in  the  minds 
of  a  people  who,  though  generous,  were  ignorant  of  the 
question  which  they  attempted  to  solve;  but  the  same  in- 
fection had  penetrated  even  to  the  official  regions,  pervert- 
ing good  sense,  extinguishing  prudence,  and  putting  to 
flight  all  ideas  which  might  have  favored  other  and  worth- 
ier  interests. 

After  these  unpremeditated  declarations  were*  succes- 
sively made  by  the  ministers  in  the  French  Chambers,  as 
has  already  been  stated,  a  plan  was  officially  organized  to 
accomplish  the  design  set  forth  in  said  declarations;  and 
the  administrative  committee  of  colonial  affairs,  residing 
in  Paris,  resting  their  claims  on  this  plan,  not  only  pro- 
posed to  the  government,  in  a  decisive  manner,  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  French  colonies,  submitting  to  its 
deliberation  three  different  systems,  in  order  that  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  slaves  might  be  carried  out  in  accordance 
with  the  plan  they  might  think  the  most  elligible;  but 
they  went  so  far  as  to  petition  government  to  the  effect 
that  the  councils  of  the  colonies  should  not  be  consulted 
on  bo  momentous  a  question.  - 


J 


138 

This  petition  deserves  our  attention  as  it  will  enable  us 
to  understand  to  what  an  extent  the  abolitionists  had  suc- 
ceeded in  diffusing  their  ideas  and  increasing  their  im- 
portance. Fortunately  for  the  French  colonies,  the  colo- 
nial minister  in  Paris  refused  at  that  time  to  accede  to 
such  an  arrogant  demand,  and  the  colonial  councils  and 
governors,  and  even  a  special  council  in  each  locality,  were 
separately  consulted;  though  at  the  same  time  the  impro- 
per course  recommended  by  the  ministers  in  the  Chambers 
was  followed,  inasmuch  as  the  colonists  were  forbidden  all 
discussion  of  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of  negro 
emancipation,  that  measure  being  already  a  pri7iciple  de- 
cided in  the  affirmative,  and  were  only  allowed  the  privi- 
lege of  expressing  their  opinion  respecting  each  of  the 
three  different  systems  which  had  been  planned  by  the 
central  administrative  committee. 

This  measure  was  of  great  importance,  owing  to  the 
light  which  it  shed  in  gubernatorial  spheres;  and,  as  its 
analysis  will  not  be  out  of  place  here,  but  rather  appears 
indispensably  necessary  for  the  better  acquaintance  with 
the  details  of  the  important  question  which  originated  it, 
I  will  here  relate  its  history,  even  though  it  must  be  in 
an  abridged  form.  # 

The  petition  of  the  central  administrative  committee  on 
colonial  affairs,  addressed  to  the  French  government 
through  the  Minister  of  Marine,  who  was  also  colonial  mi- 
nister, was  made  on.  the  19  th  of  June,  1840.  Three  differ- 
ent systems  for  liberating  the  slaves  were  proposed  in  said 
petition,  which  were  as  follows:  one,  of  partial  and  pro- 
gressive emancipation,  which  had  previously  been  devised 
by  M.  de  Tracy,  consisting  principally  in  declaring  the 
children  of  slaves  free,  and  subjecting  them,  when  of  fit- 
ting age,  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  owners  of  their  mothers; 
the  owners  being  benefitted  by  their  labor  until  a  certain 
period,  and  paying  to  the  adults  daily  wages,  by  the  sav- 
ings of  which  they  might  successively  be  enabled  to  eman- 
cipate themselves.  The  colonists  whose  property  might 
suffer  by  this  system  should,  according  to  the  by  no  means 
equitable  idea  of  its  author,  be  indemnified  by  a  moderate 
compensation  from  the  public  treasury. 

The  second  system,  which  emanated  from  a  committee 
of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  was  also  intended  to  effect 


< 


139 

a  simultaneous  emancipation,  but  by  still  more  violent 
and  less  equitable  means  than  those  proposed  in  the  first. 
The  State  was  to  take  charge  of  the  slaves,  thus  depriv- 
ing the  colonists  of  their  property,  in  the  name  of  the 
public  good.  The  slaves  would  then  be  hired  out,  by  the 
State,  to  their  respective  masters,  and  the  proceeds  of 
their  labor  were  to  be  divided  into  two  portions,  one  to 
cover  the  expenses  for  the  maintenance  and  other  wants 
of  the  negroes,  and  the  other  to  pay  to  the  owners  the 
indemnification  due  to  them  by  the  State. 

By  the  third  system  all  the  slaves  were  to  be  imme- 
diately declared  free,  and  the  colonists  were  to  be  in- 
demnified for  their  loss.  But  the  former  were  to  remain 
subject  to  the  latter  during  some  years,  in  the  character 
of  apprentices,  and  the  product  of  their  labor  was  to  be 
the  remuneration  of  the  owners  for  the  expenses  of  appren- 
ticeship. This  was  an  exact  imitation  of  the  method 
adopted  by  the  English  in  their  colonies,  which,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  could  not  be  carried  into  effect  in  all  its 
parts,  on  account  of  the  disastrous  results  which  it  pro- 
duced from  the  very  first  day  of  its  institution. 

The  French  government,  with  far  greater  compliance 
than  would  have  been  counselled  by  a  serious  reflection 
on  the  subject  and  a  proper  regard  for  its  own  interests, 
did  not  hesitate  to  assume  the  responsability  attached  to 
these  measures,  and  adopted  them  without  further  delay. 
To  that  effect  a  crrcular  was  sent  to  the  governors  of  Mar- 
tinique, Guadeloupe,  Bourbon  and  Guiane,  dated  July  18. 
1840,  communicating  to  them  that  the  council  of  minis- 
ters had  resolved  to  order  that,  in  each  colony,  a  special 
council,  presided  over  by  the  governor,  and  composed  of 
the  ordonnateur,  the  local  director,  the  attorney  general 
and  the  colonial  inspector,  should  be  formed,  which  coun- 
cil was  to  report  to  the  government  on  the*  various  points 
found  in  each  of  these  three  systems,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  was  to  state  the  preparatory  measures  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  opinion  of  its  members,  might  be  useful 
and  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  the  legal  project,  on  what- 
ever system  should  be  preferred.  _ 

At  the  same  time  another  royal  decree,  bearing  fhe  same 
date,  was  issued  to  the  governors  already  mentioned,  or- 


j 


140 

dering  them  to  convene  the  colonial  councils,  and  place  the 
aforesaid  question  before  them  for  their  deliberation. 

Our  readers  must  naturally  suppose  that,  in  a  question 
of  such  importance,  no" arguments  would  be  spared.  Those 
called  forth  by  the  circulars  were  really  so  numerous  and 
so  diffuse  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  insert  them  all 
in  less  than  two  large  volumes,  it  being  a  singular  fact 
that,  without  any  previous  consultation  or  understanding 
between  the  different  colonies,  their  opinions  agreed  so 
exactly  that  they  all  appeared  to  have  emanated  from 
one  and  the  same  colony. 

The  reports  made  were,  in  general,  founded  on  a  propo- 
sition presented  in  this  form: 

"  Can  paid  labor  and  the  free  competition  of  laborers 
replace  the  compulsory  labor  of  negroes  in  the  colonies?" 

This  proposition,  presented  by  some  of  the  colonies  in 
the  same  terms  as  above  written,  and  by  others,  although 
in  a  different' form,  essentially  the  same  in  spirit,  was 
unanimously  decided  in  the  negative  on  the  following 
grounds  : — The  nature  of  the  climate  ;  the  spontaneous 
vegetation  of  tropical  soil,  whereby  life  can  be  supported 
without  labor  ;  the  natural  tendencies  of  man  not  to  labor 
more  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  support  life,  when  he 
undergoes  a  change  of  country,  customs,  wants,  and,  we 
might  even  say,  of  civilization  ;  and  the  indifference  with 
which  he  generally  looks  upon  any  other  than  his  native 
land.  t 

To  strengthen  these  arguments  the  reporters  adverted 
in  the  first  place,  as  was  natural,  to  the  warning  held  up 
by  the  English  colonies,  which  were  then  known  to  be 
ruined  ;  and  then  entering  into  details  on  each  of  the  sys- 
tems proposed,  they  proved  the  positive  spoliation  con- 
tained in  the  idea  of  emancipation  ;  not  only  by  freeing 
the  negroes,  but  by  causing  the  abandonment  of  the  lands 
which  those  agents  cultivated  and  which  without  them 
would  be  unproductive. 

To  oppose  the  first  of  these  systems,  the  incompati- 
bility of  the  freedom  of  the  children,  while  the  mother 
remained  a  slave,  was  brought  forward  as  an  idea  con- 
trary to  the  laws  of  nature,  and,  although  this  argument 
cannot  be  classed  among   those  distinguished   for  their 


\ 


141 

soundness  and  conformity  to  truth,  as,  in  this  system 
the  freedom  of  the  mother  was  guaranteed  so  soon  as  her 
child  should  attain  the  age  of  discretion,  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  at  the  first  glance,  it  must  have  appeared  of 
great  weight. 

But  the  opposition  of  the  reporters  appeared  to  be 
most  strenuous  against  emancipation  by  the  second  and 
the  third  systems  in  that  part  relating  to  the  indemni- 
fication of  the  owners  with  the  salary  they  were  required 
to  pay  to  their  laborers,  who  were  neither  more  nor  less 
than  their  own  slaves.  Such  an  indemnification  was  not 
real,  owing  to  its  origin,  nor  was  it  acceptable,  owing  to 
its  form  ;  inasmuch  as  in  both  senses  it  could  with  justice 
be  declared  null. 

In  short,  after  reiterating  that  the  reports  from  all  the 
colonies  coincided  in  spirit  though  they  differed  in  their 
form  of  expression,  some  of  the  councils  obeying  the 
order  to  consider  the  emancipation  project  as  alj^ady  de- 
cided in  principle,  whilst  others  respectfully,  but  energeti- 
cally, presented  their  views  against  the  measure,  the  argu- 
ments of  the  reporters  may  be  summed  up  in  the  follow- 
ing conclusion  : 

The  problem  of  paid  labor  and  of  the  free  competi- 
tion of  laborers  has  no  affirmative  solution  in  the  actual 
condition  of  th^  colonies  if  we  consider  their  secular 
organization  and  their  pressing  and  future  interests. 

All  transitory  systems  are  bad  in  their  nature,  and, 
when  protracted  they  produce  the  most  destructive  re- 
sults. The  social  transformation  of  the  colonies  could 
not  be  effected  except  by  the  natural  and  steady  course 
of  things. 

The  most  thorough  examination  of  the  three  sys- 
tems of  emancipation  which  have  been  submitted  to  the 
deliberations  of  the  colonial  councils,  demonstrates  that 
the  time  to  abolish  slavery  has  not  yet  arrived. 

The  partial  or  gradual  abolition  of  slavery  by  a  legisla- 
tive decision  gives  the  colonists  a  right  to  a  previous  in- 
demnification, which,  to  be  just  and  equitable,  according 
to  the  royal  ordinance,  dated  the  24th  of  April,  1833, 
which  guarantees  tfee  maintenance  of  the  colonial  institu- 
tions, ought  not  only  to  cover  the  total  value  of  the 
slaves  who  are  emancipated,  but,  also,  that  of  the  lands 
which  will  be  ruined  for  want  of  culture. 


i 


142 

It  will  be  well  to  state  that  these  reports,  so  absolutely 
opposed  to  the  official  and  extra-official  exigencies  of  the 
metropolis,  did  not  emanate  entirely  and  exclusively  from 
interested  parties;  for  it  would  be  most  notoriously  un- 
just to  class,  as  such,  the  Governors  of  the  colonies,  and 
the  other  administrative  officials  who  formed  the  councils 
which  had  been  created  ad-hoc,  as  they  had  no  landed 
property  and  were  not  permanent  residents  in  these  colo- 
nies. From  the  statements  it  will  appear  that,  what 
with  the  inexperience  on  the  one  hand  which  lent  itself 
to  an  exaggerated  sentiment  or  hidden  purpose  by  clamor- 
ing for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  without  knowing  any- 
thing about  that  of  the  negro  further  than  the  ill  sound 
of  the  word ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  consummate  expe- 
rience in  the  government  and  in  the  administration  of  the 
colonies,  which  opposed  the  tendencies  of  these  absurd 
though  well  intended  clamors,  there  could  not  but  arise 
an  antagonism,  which  in  fact  did  exist  between  the  rule 
of  the  Rome  government  and  the  vast  interests  of  the 
colonies. 

That  the  council  of  Ministers  saw  their  error  as  soon  as 
their  minds  were  enlightened  by  the  colonial  reports,  can- 
not be  denied,  seeing  that  these  clamors  had  no  ulterior 
results  except  the  damage  done  in  the  colonies  by  the 
distrust  which  they  engendered  for  the  future.  Unfor- 
tunately, eight  years  afterwards,  the  French  republic  ap- 
peared with  all  its  wild  reforms,  and  in  the  name  of 
equality  the  slavery  of  the  negroes  in  the  colonies  was 
instantaneously  abolished,  never  more  to  be  renewed.  This 
event  would  be  laudable  by  every  sentiment  of  humanity,  if 
to  destroy  a  work  contrary  to  the  dignity  of  man  and  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  they  had  not  trampled  under  foot  in- 
terests and  rights  that  were  in  no  manner  opposed  in  their 
nature  to  the  equity  of  the  reform.  But  this  is  not  the 
place  for  further  considerations  on  a  point  of  so  much 
importance  in  the  task  we  have  undertaken,  and  therefore 
we  will  return  to  the  history  of  the  efforts  made  by  the 
English  abolitionists  in  the  colonial  nations. 

In  Spain,  no  less  than  in  France,  they  labored  to  en- 
graft the  same  ideas,  taking  advantage  with  singular 
ability  of  the  political  emigration  in  1823,  which  obliged 
the  most  illustrious  leaders  of  the  liberal  party  on  the 
Peninsula  to  live  in  England  for  the  space  of  ten  years. 


\ 


143 

This  circumstance  had  a  remarkable  influence  in  the 
treaty  of  1835,  and  the  effects  would  have  been  much 
greater,  if,  in  the  excellent  judgment  of  the  Spanish  go- 
vernment, the  sterner  duties  of  the  public  service  had.  nut 
out- weighed  the  impulses  of  personal  gratitude.  For 
which  reason  the  agents  of  the  Anti-slaverv  Society,  know- 
ing,  that  after  said  treaty,  few  if  any  official  concessions 
could  be  obtained  in  Spain,  had  recourse  to  artifices  to  de- 
moralize slavery  wherever  it  was  most  successful. 

With  this  end  in  view  the  Society,  possessing  at  that 
time  great  influence  with  the  English  government,  *  ex- 
perienced no  difficulty  in  obtaining  that  a  ship-of-the- 
line  of  the  royal  navy,  manned  by  negroes,  should  be 
stationed  at  the  port  of  Havana  ;  which  vessel  was,  in 
fact,  stationed  there,  ostensibly  for  the  purpose  of  receiv- 
ing the  Africans  taken  from  the  slavers  which  might  be 
captured  before  reaching  their  destination,  but  evidently, 
to  serve  as  a  focus  and  encouragement  of  insurrection  to 
the  slaves  of  the  island  of  Cuba. 

The  next  step  was  the  appointment  as  consul,  in  Ha- 
vana, of  the  dangerous  Mr.  Turnbull,  of  whom  mention 
has  already  been  made  in  the  official  report,  relative  to 
the  insurrection  plotted  by  the  negroes  in  Cuba  in  the 
year  1840;  said  functionary  being  a  member  of' the  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  and  so  fanatical,  that  he  made  himself  ere 
long  the  object  of  strong  remonstrances  owing  to  the  cool 
perseverance  with  which  he  acted  in  his  labors  of  aboli- 
tion. 

At  the  same  time  or  shortly  after,  other  individuals 
belonging  to  the  abolitionist  society,  presented  themselves 
in  Madrid,  exciting  the  philanthrophy  of  journalists,  and 
working  on  the  general  ignorance  on  colonial  affairs, 
which,  owing  to  the  great  distance  between  the  countries, 
are  very  little  known  ;  and  these  individuals  discharged 
their  commission  so  fully  through  one  of  the  said  journals, 
called  El  Corresponsal,  that  in  articles  full  of  unques- 
tionable sincerity,  although  without  the  least  reflection, 
they  went  so  far  as  to  demand  the  absolute  and  immediate 
emancipation  of  the  slaves. 

By  way  of  precaution,  and  with  the  view  of  support- 
ing those  philanthropic  declamations,  the  London  Stan- 
dard had  previously  inserted  a  fictitious  exposition, 
which  was    attributed  to  various    planters  in  the  island 


i 


144 

of  Cuba,  recommending  the  repression  of  the  negro  traf- 
fic as  contrary  to  their  own  interests,  from  which  absurd 
invention,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Corresponsal,  was 
undoubtedly  authentic,  the  abolitionists  gained  great  favor 
with  the  unwary  and  in  the  sympathy  of  the  aforesaid  journal. 

After  which,  and  inasmuch  as  in  the  hearts  of  some  ge- 
nerous and  grateful  persons,  the  remembrance  of  their 
own  emigration  or  that  of  beloved  friends  could  not  be  ef- 
faced, the  Spanish  government  admitted  in  good  faith  and 
sincerity  the  remonstrances  which,  from  that  time,  began 
to  be  made,  with  some  asperity,  by  the  English  govern- 
ment, relative  to  the  continuation  of  the  traffic,  and  even 
consented  to  the  plan  of  consulting  the  Captain  General 
of  the  island  of  Cuba,  as  to  the  expediency  of  declaring 
all  the  negroes  imported  into  the  Island  since  1820,  free, 
in  accordance  with  the  demand  set  forth  by  the  English 
government  in  a  diplomatic  despatch.  As  can  be  seen, 
then,  the  steps  taken  in  Spain  by  the  abolitionists  were 
not  less  active  than  those  that  had  been  taken  in  France; 
and  were  it  not  that  the  discovery  of  the  conspiracy  for 
the  insurrection  of  the  negroes  in  the  island  of  Cuba  gave 
better  evidence,  than  all  the  arguments  that  could  be  pub- 
lished against  emancipation,  of  the  dangers  to  which  the 
security  of  our  colonies  was  exposed  by  a  course  of  indis- 
creet and  even  criminal  compliance  with  such  importuni- 
ties, who  knows  but  that,  at  this  day>  the  most  valuable 
gem  of  the  Antilles,  the  pearl  of  the  West,  the  coveted 
island  of  Cuba,  would  have  been  made  another  stain  on 
civilization,  like  the  western  part  of  Santo  Domingo  ? 

What  can  be  established  as  an  undeniable  fact  is  that 
the  abolitionists  desired  this  result,  and  that,  for  its  ac- 
complishment, various  efforts  of  a  private,  and  some  of 
an  official  character,  were  made;  and  in  order  that  this 
charge  may  not  appear  a  mere  supposition,  should  it  not 
be  established  by  corroborative  evidence,  I  will  present 
such  proofs  as  are  in  my  possession,  some  of  which  will  be 
found  in  the  reliable  statements  already  made  in  this  book, 
and  other  documents  which  will  subsequently  be  inserted. 

In  the  island  of  Cuba,  which,  from  its  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances, for  seventy  years  back,  differs  completely  from 
the  other  colonies,  the  colored  people  exceed  in  number  and 
vigor  the  white  population,  as  can  be  proved  by  consult- 
ing her  statistics. 


\ 


145 

In  1850,  the  number  of  negroes  and  mulattoes,  slaves 
and  free,  of  the  island  in  question,  amounted  to  more  than 
five  hundred  thousand,  the  whole  population,  both  black 
and  white,  being  a  little  over  nine  hundred  thousand. 
Both  elements  have  increased  in  the  same  proportion  since  t 
that  time,  so  that  at  present,  of  the  total  of  one  million 
three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  which  Cuba  contains, 
seven  hundred  thousand  and  some  hundreds  are  colored. 
Add  to  this  difference,  which  results  in  favor  of  the  ne- 
groes, the  circumstances  of  the  discrepancy  between  the 
number  of  females  and  males,  and  consequently  the  pro- 
portional scarcity  in  the  number  of  children,  and  the  re- 
sult will  augment  in  a  natural  and  incontestable  manner, 
and  in  a  manifestly  dangerous  proportion,  the  material 
strength  of  the  negroes  over  the  wdiite  population. 

If  we  look  upon  this  precedent,  which  must  have  been 
well  known  to  the  English  Philanthropic  Society  which 
was  laboring  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  then  take 
into  consideration  the  unmistakeable  efforts  made  officially 
by  the  said  abolition  society  and  by  the  English  govern- 
ment, firstly,  to  persuade  Spain  to  proclaim  the  freedom 
of  all  negroes  imported  into  the  island  of  Cuba  since  1820,  , 
and,  afterwards,  to  induce  her  to  adopt  the  total  abolition 
of  slavery,  (as  will  be  hereafter  demonstrated)  we  cannot 
for  a  moment  doubt  that  the  africanization  of  Cuba  would 
be  the  natural  and  logical  consequence  of  those  efforts, 
should  they  be  crowned  at  last  with  success,  and  would, 
still  more  inevitably,  be  the  result  of  a  successful  insur- 
rection. 

It  would  not  be  right  for  me  to  say  that  the  English 
government  took  any  active  part  in,  or  even  had  the  slight- 
est knowledge  of  the  proceedings  of  its  consul,  Mr.  Turn- 
bull,  in  exciting  the  negroes  of  the  island  of  Cuba  to  an 
insurrection  against  the  whites;  but  neither  would  it  be 
just  to  doubt  the  initiative  taken  by  said  consul  in  the 
conspiracy,  since  it  appears  officially  in  the  judicial  pro- 
ceedings. u)  And,  as  he  was  a  member  and  agent  of  the 

(1)  In  another  part  of  this  procedure,  which  I  have  before  me,  there  is 
an  account  which  says  as  follows:  "Fiscal  conclusion  in  the  trial  of  the  negro 
Juan  Perez  Dasnuevp.— This  legal  procedure  arose  from  the  celebrated 
case  which  must  at  present  occupy  public  attention  in  every  country 
where  the  news  of  the  momentous  event  that  caused  it  have  reached.  Ac- 
cording to  the  data  acquired  in  the  various  investigations  in  which  I  am 


J 


146 

London  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  owed  his  position  as 
consul  to  his  ardent  zeal  and  well  known  works  published 
in  that  cause,  it  is  evident  that  to  the  said  society,  rather 
than  to  his  private  designs,  we  must  attribute  the  attempt 
made  by  the  negroes  to  exterminate  the  white  population 
in  the  most  flourishing  of  our  possessions. 

Moreover,  and  in  order  that  the  subject  may  be  better 
understood,  it  will  be  well  to  add  that  the  British  govern- 
ment refused  to  recall  its  consul  when  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment was  obliged  to  request  his  removal  on  account  of  the 
% 

• 

engaged,  and  those  appearing  from  the  investigations  which  the  .council 
has  just  attended  to,  it  is  a  certain  and  positive  fact  that  a  very  consi- 
derable number  of  free  colored  people  had  been  secretly  scheming,  since 
the  middle  of  1811,  to  incite  our  slaves  to  insurrection,  to  exterminate  all 
the  while  population,  and  afterwards  to  take  possession  of  the  Island. 
But  what  must  most  astonish  us,  what  will  appear  impossible  to  all  per- 
sons who  have  a  knowledge  of  this  event,  is  that  the  consul  of  a  friendly 
and  allied  nation,  the  man  who  had  the  confidence  of  a  government  that 
ranks  first  in  European  civilization,  should  prove  so  false  to  his  trust,  and 
should  abuse  our  friendship  to  the  extent  of  inciting  the  rebellion  him- 
self, 'by  sending  emissaries  over  the  whole  Island,  to  undermine  and  shake 
the  foundations  upon  which  its  well-being  and  tranquillity  are  based,  and 
by  putting  in  play  all  the  springs  that  might  contribute  to  the  realization 
of  such  a  horrible  project.  The  name  of  Turnbull  figures  in  every  part 
of  this  great  case  as  the  arrogant  author  of  the  sad  scenes  we  lament. 
The  extermination  of  four  hundred  and  nineteen  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  the  ruin  and  loss  of  the  island  of  Cuba  to  the  civilized  world,  seem 
to  agree  very  well  with  the  principles  professed  by  this  man,  and  with 
those  so  basely  boasted  of  by  the  philanthropic  society  to  which  he  be- 
longs; as  if  we  had  not  sufficient  common  sense  to  perceive  that  the  free- 
dom they  wish  to  bestow  on  our  servants  is  an  evil  for  them  a  hundred- 
fold greater  than  slavery  itself,  owing  to  the  ignorance  and  barbarism  in- 
herent to  these  unfortunate  beings. 

"If  the  agents  of  that  society,  which  may  well  be  called  the  would  be 
destroyer  of  the  white  population  of  the  Indies,  instead  of  inciting  our 
slaves  to  insurrection,  would  devote  their  energies  to  the  study  of  the  laws 
in  favor  of  the  slaves,  to  which  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  per- 
sons of  color  are  indebted  for  the  freedom  which  they  now  enjoy  in  the 
Island,  their  number,  compared  with  that  of  free  colored  persons  in  the 
republic  of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  being  in  a  ratio  of  more 
than  two  to  one,  according  to  the  relative  number  of  the  slaves;  if  they 
would  consider  that  these  laws  allow  the  negroes  to  acquire  means  where- 
by they  can  redeem  themselves  from  servitude,  which  is  a  privilege  that 
never  was  enjoyed  by  the  slaves  in  the  Roman  republic ;  if  these  agents, 
I  repeat,  would  devote  their  attention  to  this  concise  and  simple  legisla- 
tion, which  is  replete  with  doctrines  that  breathe  only  true  humanity  and 
philanthropy,  and  which  contained  a  prudent  and  wise  system  of  emanci- 
pation, even  at  the  time  of  their  initiation,  about  the  middle  of  the  eight- 
eenth century;  they  would  undoubtedly  be  filled  with  shame  at  the  idea 
of  having  brought  about  the  unpleasant  occurrences  which  are  now  oc- 
cupying our  attention,  and  filling  us  all  with  grief  and  sorrow,  and,  per- 
haps, would  abandon  at  once  and  forever  all  thoir  deplorable  attempts." 


\ 


147 

"Sold  and  impudent  declarations  publicly  made  by  Mr.Turn- 
bull  against  slavery,  in  the  presence  of  the  slaves;  and  as, 
simultaneously  with  this  attitude  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, a  vessel  of  the  English  royal  Navy,  manned  by  ne- 
groes, was  stationed  at  Havana,  while  its  sable  crew  went 
continually  on  shore,  clad  in  showy  uniforms,  the  more 
effectually  to  arouse  the  ambition  of  their  brethren  in  that 
city,  calumny  seized  upon  this  coincidence  as  a  pretext  for 
attributing  to  the  said  government  a  complicity  in  the 
acts  of  its  consul,  and  although  this  charge  may  have  been 
unjust,  the  British  government  certainly  took  no  steps  to 
clear  itself  from  the  imputation. 

It  was  undoubtedly  on  this  account  that  this  idea 
spread  and  became  universal,  not  only  at  that  time  and 
with  reference  to  the  island  of  Cuba,  but  for  many  years 
after,  and  extending  itself  to  the  ordinary  labors  of  the 
English  representatives  in  the  capital  of  Spain.  And  let 
it  not  be  imagined  that  this  suspicion  existed  only  in 
the  minds  of  Spanish  visionaries,  accustomed  to  view 
political  questions  through  the  narrow  and  hazy  prism 
of  their  petty  interests.  No  :  the  idea  that  England  was 
trying  to  Africanize  the  island  of  Cuba  had  become  gen- 
erally diffused,  and  in  such  a  manner  that  even  the 
names  of  parties  compromised  in  the  question  were  well 
known  ;  and,  in  Paris,  Lord  Howden,  Minister  of  Great 
Britain  in  Madrid,  was,  in  a  friendly  manner,  requested  to 
give  an  explanation  of  his  real  or  supposed  machinations, 
which  had  been  exposed  in  some  of  the  United  States' 
journals. 

The  answer  of  the  noble  lord  was  not  long  delayed,  as 
it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  him  to  exonerate  him- 
self from  such  &  charge  before  the  American  Union,  which 
had  then  a  pro-slavery  administration;  and,  rightly  cal- 
culating that  his  answer  would  be  published,  he  planned 
it  with  singular  ability,  making  therein  sundry  charges 
and  misrepresentations  against  Spain,  with  the  two-fold 
object  of  diverting  public  attention  from  his  evident  cul- 
pability, and  of  furnishing  to  calumny  fresh  pretexts  to 
continue  its  attacks  against  the  Spanish  administration 
in  the  Indies,  such  being  at  that  time  a  commonly  pre- 
vailing practice. 

I  might  here  omit  the  insertion  of  said  answer  were 
it  not  for  the  misrepresentations  it  contains,  and  the  fact 


i 


148 

that  it  was  published  without  any  contradiction.  Here, 
then,  it  will  be  found  exactly  as  it  was  published  in  the 
year  of  its  date;  and  my  readers  will  allow  me  to  make 
some  comments  on  its  contents. 

"  Paris,  November  14, 1853. — My  dear  Corbin:  I  have 
just  received  your  letter  of  yesterday,  and  I  can  assure 
you  it  by  no  means  perplexes  me.  Our  long  continued 
friendship  authorizes  you  to  put  to  me  all  those  ques- 
tions, and  I  can  answer  them  without  failing  »in  discre- 
tion or  in  the  perfect  discharge  of  my  duties  as  public 
functionary;  and  you  have  sufficient  discernment  to  know 
that  in  this  case  I  am  quite  as  anxious  to  tell  you  the 
truth  as  you  can  be  that  I  should  do  so. 

"  I  have  read  the  extraordinary  statements  which  you 
have  sent  me  concerning  the  desire  of  England  to  Afri- 
canize Cuba,  and  the  arrangements  which  I  have  been 
making  in  Madrid  to  that  effect.  In  the  most  solemn 
manner  which  these  ridiculous,  though  wicked  inventions 
will  admit,  I  declare  that  all  that  has  been  reported  on 
the  subject  is  entirely  false.  I  have  not  the  slightest 
objection  to  tell  you  what  have  been  my  negotiations 
with  the  Spanish  Government  respecting  Cuba,  for  the 
last  three  years,  and  you  will  see  that  there  is  not  the 
slightest  foundation  for  the  rumors  which,  it  appears, 
have  been  spread  in  the  United  States. 

"  First:  I  have  continually  remonstrated  with  respect 
to  the  number  of  slaves  which  are  annually  imported 
into  Cuba,  and  I  have  always  complained  of  the  public 
manner  in  which  this  traffic  is  carried  on,  with  entire 
impunity,  from  the  Captain  General  down  to  the  lowest 
official,  always  excepting  the  excellent  general  Concha. 

"  Second:  I  have  made  fruitless  efforts  to  induce  the 
Spanish  Government  to  follow  the  example  of  the  United 
States  in  this  particular,  i.  e.  to  declare  the  abominable 
traffic  in  human  beings  a  piracy. 

"  Third:  I  have  employed  my  time  in  diligent  endea- 
vors to  obtain, the  complete  and  definite  freedom  of  the 
negroes  illegally  detained  as  slaves  since  the  year  1817, 
under  the  name  of  emancipated  negroes,  in  contravention 
of  the  treaties;  and  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  being  able 
to  say  that  the  Spanish  Government  has  at  length  listen- 
ed to  the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  has  granted 
me  this  favor. 


\ 


149 

"  Fourth:  I  have  labored  to  procure  the  extinction  of 
that  intolerant  and  immoral  law  which  obliges  all  foreign- 
ers desirous  of  establishing  themselves  in  Cuba,  to  change 
their  religion,  upon  the  strange  principle,  which  was  held 
in  no  other  part  of  the  world,  that  the  fact  of  a  man's 
proving  a  renegade  to  his  faith  is  a  sufficient  guarantee 
that  he  will  make  a  good  subject. 

"  Besides  these  official  negociations,  I  have,  in  a  friendly 
manner,  and  on  several  occasions,  counselled  the  reform  of 
the  internal  system  of  the  Island,  that  the  administration 
of  justice  might  be  improved,  and  the  natives  qualified  to 
hold  public  offices. 

"  By  this  statement  you  will  see  that  what  I  have  really 
done,  or,  rather,  attempted  to  do,  is  very  different  from 
what  has  been  attributed  to  me  in  the  American  papers. 
When  the  true  state  of  the  case  shall  be  made  public,  and 
ignorance  and  malevolence  be  put  to  flight,  I  trust  that 
your  countrymen  will  give  the  support  of  their  approval  to 
the  reforms  for  which  I  have  labored,  and  which  are  so  con- 
sistent with  jour  own  laws  and  institutions. 

"In  all  that  I  have  made  known  to  you  with  such  en- 
tire frankness,  the  United  States  can  see  nothing  but  the 
natural  workings  of  England's  avowed  and  immutable  pol- 
icy in  a  cause  which  is  so  dear  to  her;  and  Spain  must 
yet  be  convinced  that,  unless  she  modifies  her  intolerance 
and  fulfils  her  agreements,  she  cannot  at  the  present  day 
expect  to  be  ranked  among  civilized  nations. 

"  Believe  me,  dear  Corbin,  to  be,  with  the  greatest  con- 
sideration, sinoerely  yours. — Howden." 

A  short  time  since  a  Spanish  journal  published  in  Lon- 
don, El  Esjianol  de  Ambos  Mundos,  said:  "  The  Spanish 
G-overment  has  not  yet  understood  the  wonderful  power  of 
the  press,  from  which  so  much  advantage  is  drawn  by  the 
Governments  of  England  and  of  the  United  States."  This 
was  expressed  by  said  journal  in  order  to  show  the  effect 
which  can  be  produced  on  public  opinion  by  accusations 
and  aspersions  when  they  remain  uncontradicted  by  the 
parties  interested,  who,  by  their  silence,  naturally  appear 
convicted  of  their  criminality;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
El  Espanol  de  Ambos  Mundos  pronounced  an  important 
truth  which  is  already  too  well  known  and  acted  upon  by 
the  enemies  of  the  Spanish  nation. 


i 


150 

In  the  first  -place,  Lord  How<jen  deliberately  wronged 
and  calumniated  all  the  Captain-Generals  of  the  island  of 
Cuba,  who  preceded  general  Concha,  when  it  was  evident 
to  all  the  world  that  not  one  of  them  had  authorized, with 
his  knowledge  or  consent,  the  introduction  of  bozal  negroes, 
notwithstanding  that  they  were  introduced  on  a  large 
scale  before  and  during  the  administration  of  general  Con- 
cha. It  would  be  unfair  to  the  whole  body  of  these  offi- 
cials to  make  mention  of  the  integrity  of  any  one  in  parti- 
cular, in  the  strict  discharge  of  his  duties,  and  even  to  de- 
signate by  name  those  whose  premature  recall  has  been 
attributed,  by  the  ignorant,  to  their  excessive  zeal  against 
the  slave  trade;  let  us,  then,  be  satisfied  with  clearing  the 
honor  q$  all,  knowing  that  it  cannot  be  assailed  with  any 
positive  foundation  or  even  with  any  show  of  justice. 

The  introduction  of  bozal  negroes  into  the  island  of  Cu- 
ba, wliich  has  a  ^periphery  of  two  thousand  one  hundred 
miles,  is  carried  on  precisely  in  the  same  manner  that  slav- 
ers bear  away  their  cargoes  from  the  coasts  of  Africa;  and 
the  charge  of  bribery  can  be  laid  upon  the  English  cruis- 
ers guarding  those  coasts,  because  they  do  not  succeed  in 
preventing  the  traffic,  with  as  much  reason  as  upon  the 
Spanish  authorities  of  the  Island,  because  they  cannot 
prevent  the  introduction  of  those  cargoes,  that  being  a 
natural  and  irremediable  result  of  the  necessities  of  agri- 
culturists, and  of  the  immense  profits  which  are  realized 
by  those  engaged  in  the  trade. 

The  Spanish  government,  ever  zealous  in  the  observance 
of  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  existing  treaties,  could  not 
legally  do  more  than  it  had  done,  was  doing,  and  still 
does  to  prove  that  those  treaties  did  not  exist  only  in 
name.  If  the  fitters  out  of  slavers  were  Spanish  subjects 
alone,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  declaring  them 
pirates,  according  to  the  suggestion  of  the  English  Min- 
ister, and  having  them  hung  at  the  yard-arm,  should 
such  a  proceeding  appear  equitable.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  the  treaties  had  already  established  laws  and  penal- 
ties for  the  slave  traders  and  a  special  tribunal  for  their 
trial  ;  so  that,  the  penalty  of  hanging  recommended  by 
JLord  Howden,  not  being  authorized  by  the  treaties  ini- 
tiated by  his  government,  could  not  be  adopted  unless  a 
new  treaty  was  drawn  up.  In  the  second  place,  the  ma- 
jority of  the  traders  were  of  other  nations,  and  Spain  did 


\ 


not  see  fit  to  create  international  conflicts  for  every  slaver 
that  she  might  capture.  That  the  noble  Lord  sought  to 
bring  about  such  international  difficulties* may  well  be 
imagined,  that  is,  if  he  did  in  fact  recommend  such  mea- 
sures, for  the  furtherance  of  his  own  philanthropic  scheme  ; 
but  it  would  be  folly  to  suppose  that  the  impertinent  in- 
terference would  be  favorably  received  by  the  Spanish 
government,  guided  as  it  is  by  prudence  and  circumspec- 
tion in  politics  and  administration. 

The  absolute  freedom  of  the  emancipated  negroes  has 
always  been  secured  in  the  Spanish  possessions,  in  con- 
formity with  the  regulations  ;  and  it  is  false  that,  at  the 
date  to  which  Lord  Howden  alludes,  negroes  captnred 
from  slavers  in  1817  were  held  to  forced  service,  as  no 
prizes  whatever  were  made  until  many  years  after,  and 
certainly  none  could  have  been  made  until  1820,  accord- 
ing to  the  first  treaty.  Neither  does  it  seem  probable 
that  the  English  Minister  had  any  reason  for  inserting  the 
third  exposition  of  his  efforts, 'further  than  from  puerile 
vanity  and  the  desire  of  appearing  to  advantage  at  the 
expense  of  the  honor  of  Spain. 

In  the  Spanish  colonies  there  is  positively  no  law  to 
compel  foreigners,  established  there,  to  change  their  reli- 
gion. The  public  observance  of  any  other  than  the  Ca- 
tholic religion  is  not  permitted  in  Spain,  and  this  law  is 
established  in  the  colonies.  Great  numbers  of  Protestants 
of  all  the  known  sects  reside  in  these  islands,  and  their 
testimony  can  be  appealed  to  in  order  that  Lord  How- 
den's  fourth  observation  may  appear  in  its  true  character 
betore  the  tribunal  of  History.  Article  66  of  the  Regu- 
lations, by  which  the  heathen  ChineSe  laborers  on  the 
island  are  governed,  says  : — "The  master  shall  endeavor 
to  teach  the  dogmas  and  morality  of  the  true  religion  to 
the  laborers,  but  without  employing  other  means  than 
persuasion  and  conviction  ;  and  should  any  of  them  mani- 
fest a  desire  to  be  converted  to  the  Catholic  faith,  it  shall 
be  made  known  to  the  priest  of  that  parish  that  he  may 
take  the  proper  measures  to  that  effect."  The  impartial 
reader  can  compare  the  tolerance  of  this  article  with  the 
accusations  which  Lord  Howden  makes  against  Spain 
with  such  a  total  disregard  of  truth,  and  draw  thence  the 
logical  conclusions  which  his  judgment  shall  dictate. 

While  I  am  on  this  subject  I  will  also  observe  that,  in 


J 


152 

political  and  religions  matters  each  nation  follows  that 
course  which  may  appear  most  in  accordance  with  its 
traditions,  its 'most  cherished  interests,  and  its  peculiar 
characteristics;  and  that  Lord  Howden,  in  writing  to  Mr. 
Corbin,  a  native  of  the  United  States,  about  the  intol- 
erance of  the  Spanish  laws,  only  succeeded,  though  per- 
haps without  being  aware  of  it,  in  wounding  the  national 
vanity  of  his  friend  by  the  evident  allusion  to  the  positive 
defect  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  which  prohibit 
foreigners  from  establishing  themselves  in  the  country 
unless  they  become  naturalized  citizens.  These  two 
cases,  however,  are  different,  since  the  defect  which  really 
exists  in  the  laws  of  the  United  States  only  affects  an  im- 
portant point  in  political  rights,  whereas  that  of  Spain,  if 
it  were  indeed  what  Lord  Howden  asserts,  would  strike  a 
mortal  blow  at  the  religious  faith  of  those  who  should 
submit  to  its  requirements. 

Nevertheless,  even  if  that  were  the  case,  such  proceed- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  government  would  not 
deserve  the  anathema  pronounced  on  them  by  Lord  How- 
den, who  has  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that  Spain  is  un- 
worthy of  ranking  amongst  the  civilized  nations  ;  because 
in  matters  of  religious  faith  such  absolute  declarations 
are  unseemly,  it  not  being  yet  clearly  defined,  or,  to  avoid 
blasphemy,  I  should  say  rather,  it  being  demonstrable  by 
ample  and  unimpeachable  evidence  that,  on  a  point  so 
essential  to  human  existence,  that  nation  which  cleaves 
exclusively  to  one  faith,  banishing  all  that  sinful  pride 
which  leads  the  limited  minds  of  mortals  to  attempt  to 
grasp  the  Infinite  as  fully  as  God  alone  can  comprehend 
it,  is  far  wiser  than,  those  in  which  every  change  in  the 
human  mind  produces  a  new  creed,  while  from  the  infinite 
variety  of  these  ideas  there  result  as  many  different  reli- 
gious beliefs  as  there  may  be  persons  who  chose  to  exercise 
their  private  judgment  upon  the  spiritual  interests  of  the 
world  and  upon  the  Divine  cause  of  the  universe. 

The  friendly  counsels  to  which  the  English  Minister  re- 
fers, at  the  conclusion  of  his  letter,  will  certainly  appear 
very  singular  when  they  are  compared  with  the  real  facts. 

It  is  universally  known  that  the  great  code  of  laws  of 
the  Indies  is  a  monument  of  equity  and  wisdom,  which, 
with  the  exception  of  the  political  part  concerning  modern 
institutions,  has  been  preserved  integral  in  nearly  all  the 


v 


153 

Spanish  American  republics,  since  their  independence.  It 
is  also  known  that,  according  to  the  same  code  the  high 
functionaries  of  the  law  are  required  to  give  an  account  of 
their  administration  when  they  retire  from  office,  and  that 
they  are  jield  accountable,  before  the  tribunal  established 
according  to  law,  not  only  for  their  own  actions,  but  for 
the  faults  committed  openly  and  with  impunity  under 
their  jurisdiction  by  their  subordinates.  And  it  is  further- 
more known  that  the  Spanish  government,  ever  prudently 
deliberating  on  the  reforms  and  alterations-  counselled  by 
the  changes  of  the  times,  and  adopting  all  such  as  would 
not  injure  public  interests,  not  only  maintained  in  all  their 
power  the  most  beneficial  dispositions  of  said  code  of  the 
Indies,  but  also  added  new  ones  thereto  whenever  they 
appeared  useful  and  necessary. 

From  these  incontrovertible  facts  which  are  universally 
known,  and  which  have  caused  justice  to  be  done  to  the 
administration  of  Spain  in  her  colonies,  if  not  by  the  peo- 
ple at  large,  at  least  by  the  most  eminent  statesmen,  we 
may  draw  the  following  conclusion  :  that  the  counsels  to 
which  Lord  Howden  refers  in  his  letter  to  his  friend  at 
Paris,  were  either  specially  gotten  up  for  effect  in  the  case 
which  obliged  him  to  allude  to  them,  or  they  were  so  un- 
reasonable and  exposed  so  much  ignorance  on  the  subjects 
to  which  they  referred  that  the  Spanish  government 
utterly  disregarded  them  as  being  useless  or  pernicious. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  that  absurd  and  disgraceful 
counsel,  recommending  that  the  natives  of  the  island  of 
Cuba  be  qualified  to  hold  office  and  discharge  public  func- 
tions ? 

Being  in  Havana  in  the  year  1852,  and  having  seen  a 
similar  charge  preferred  against  the  Spanish  government 
in  a  certain  United  States  journal,  I  determined  to  ascer- 
tain how  much  truth  that  charge  contained.  At  that 
time  the  island  was  governed  by  the  ill-fated  General 
Valentine  Canedo,  and  to  his  authority  I  had  recourse, 
requesting  him,  by  letter,  that  direct  information  might 
be  furnished  to  me,  from  all  the  Lieutenancies  of  the 
government,  the  bureau  of  the  Sub-Inspectors  of  the 
array,  that  of  the  Commandant  General  of  the  navy, 
the  Captaincy  General  and  the  central  offices,  concerning 
all  the  employees,  in  every  branch  of  the  administration, 
who  had  not  been  born  on  the  Peninsula.     The  General 


J 


154 

willingly  granted  tins  request,  so  that  within  the  course 
of  two  months  I  found  myself  in  possession  of  the  de- 
sired data,  which  were  so  numerous  as  to  form  an  ex- 
ceedingly bulky  package.  It  is  true  that  in  these  papers 
were  found  some  names  of  persons  who  had  been  born  in 
Costa  Firme  and  other  parts  of  the  Spanish  American 
continent,  but  it  is  also  a  fact  that  the  number  of  native 
Cubans  who  exercised  public  functions  amounted  with 
certainty  to  over  seven  hundred.  As  the  fact  which  I 
have  stated  is  official,  and  can  be  attested  by  the  Lieuten- 
ancies of  the  government,  to  their  testimony  do  I  submit 
the  defence  of  my  assertions,  and  in  case  that  there  should 
be  some  indolent  persons  who  might  prefer  still  to  doubt 
my  words  rather  than  trouble  themselves  to  confront  the 
truth  by  such  means,  I  will  proceed  further  to  recall  to 
their  minds  that  previously  to  the  date  above  alluded 
to,  Don  Jose  de  la  Concha,  a  native  of  Costa  Firme,  had 
been  Governor  and  Captain  General ;  the  unfortunate 
Don  Narciso  Lopez,  also  a  Spanish-American,  had  been 
Commandant  General  of  Trinidad  de  Cuba;  the  Count 
of  Villanueva,  born  in  Havana,  had  been  Superintendent 
General  of  the  Public  Treasury;  the  then  Brigadier  Don 
Juan  de  Herrera,  also  a  native  Cuban,  was  Commandant 
General  or  Sub-Inspector  of  Artillery;  and  a  brother  of 
the  last  mentioned  officer,  Don  Francisco  de  Paula  Mi- 
chelena,  a  native  Cuban,  now  living  in  the  Island,  retired 
from  the  military  service,  was  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
Bejucal  or  of  San  Cristobal,  I  do  not  well  remember  which, 
and  had  also  exercised  the  same  functions,  about  that 
time,  in  another  jurisdiction  of  the  same  department; 
and  I  had  the  honor  of  being  on  terms  of  deferential 
friendship  with  Don  Matias  Letamendi,  also  a  Cuban, 
who  held  the  post  of  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Sancto 
Spiritus,  where  he  displayed  great  loyalty  and  ability  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duties.  General  La  Vallette,  the 
second  in  command  on  the  Island,  though  not  a  Creole, 
had  nearly  all  of  his  relatives  in  Cuba,  where  they  were 
born.  The  Chief  Judges  were  all  Cubans,  with  very 
rare  exceptions;  and,  for  the  truth  of  this,  I  appeal  to 
the  testimony  of  the  oflicial  Guide-Book,  which  would 
infallibly  expose  any  mis-statement  on  my  ^part;  and  na- 
tive Cubans  abounded  especially  in  the  army  and  navy, 


v 


155 

in  which  they  held  all    grades,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest. 

With  the  aid  of  these  explanations,  which  are  not 
misplaced  here,  though  they  may  appear  foreign  to  the 
principal  subject  of  this  work,  it  will  be  easy  to  com- 
prehend what  is  the  real  value  of  the  contents  of  Lord 
Howden's  letter  to  his  friend  Corbin  in  the  judgment  of 
reflecting  people.  And  the  intrinsic  value  of  said  letter 
can  be  more  accurately  estimated  when  it  becomes  known 
that  the  charges  preferred  by  the  press  in  the  United 
States' of  America,  against  that  representative  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  court  of  Madrid,  were  not  without  foun- 
dation, insomuch  as  they  related  to  those  concealed  ten- 
dencies towards  the  africanization  of  Cuba,  i.  e.  the  de- 
livering of  the.  Island  into  the  power  of  its  African  po- 
pulation, within  a  period  of  time  which,  though  inde- 
finite, would,  according  to  their  desires,  infallibly  come 
'to  pass.  "% 

This  will  be  better  linderstood  if  the  reader  bears  in 
mind  the  computation,  which  has  already  been  made  in 
these  pages,  between  the  two  races  which  people  said  Is- 
land, demonstrating  that  it  would  be  difficult,  nay,  even 
impossible,  to  bestow  unconditional  freedom  on  the  ne- 
groes without  causing  the  violent  extermination  of  the 
whites,  owing  to  the  material  preponderance  of  the  former 
over  the  latter;  and  then  take  into  consideration  the  de- 
monstration of  the  efforts  made  by  Lord  Howden  to  ob- 
tain, from  the  government  of  Madrid,  a  decree  of  entire 
and  absolute  freedom  in  favor  of  the  negroes  of  the  island 
of  Cuba. 

These  efforts  were  made  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1851,  on  the*  occasion  of  the  unsuccessful  Anglo-American 
expedition  against  that  Island;  for,  the  government  of 
Spain  having  sent  its  expressions  of  gratitude  to  that  of 
Great  Britain,  for  its  friendly  offer  to  prevent,  with  English 
ships  of  war,  any  further  attempts  of  like  nature,  the  En- 
glish, persevering  in  their  idea  of  abolishing  slavery,  ima- 
gined that  the  circumstances  were  opportune  to  obtain  a 
definite  and  favorable  decision  of  the  question. 

This  design  was  coincided  with  by  a  decree  issued  at 
that  time  in  New  Granada,  abolishing  the  exiguous  re- 
mains of  negro  slavery  which  still  existed  there,  though, 
in  the  year  1817,  if  I  recollect  aright,  and  during  tb>  ^.r 


j 


156 

of  its  political  independence,  the  famous  Bolivar  had  de-  , 
creed  that  all  children  born  of  slaves  in  those  territories 
which  he  governed,  should  be  forever  free;  and,  as  if  there 
was  anything  in  common  between  the  circumstances  of 
that  country  and  those  of  the  lovely  Antille,  or  as  if  En- 
glish diplomacy  was  not  aware  of  the  disparity  which 
Bxisted  between  a  country  almost  ruined  for  agriculture 
dy  its  never  ending  civil  wars,  and  a  land  whose  inexhaus- 
tible productiveness  is  aided  by  its  uninterrupted  peace, 
the  famous  Lord  Howden,  who,  two  years  after,  was  so  so- 
licitous in  putting  a  wrong  construction  on  the  facts  pre- 
sented, when  he  was  questioned  as  to  his  participation  in 
the  project  of  Africanizing  Cuba,  presented  a  note  to  the 
Spanish  Government,  on  the  26th  of  September,  in  which 
the  example  of  New  Granada  is  held  up  to  it  to  be  blindly 
followed. 

The  Government  of  Madrid  answered  him  with  the  pru- 
dence and  circumspection  demanded  by  the  occasion;  and, 
as  it  called  Lord  Howden' s  attention  to  some  contradictions 
which  existed  between  his  despatch  and  those  previously 
sent  by  the  English  chancellorship,  lord  Palmerston,  who 
was  his  superior  in  the  State  department,  endeavored, 
though  not  without  great  difficulty,  to  extricate  himself 
from  the  muddle  into  which  his  blind  confidence  had 
placed  him,  to  which  effect  he  sent  the  following  official 
letter: 

"To  Lord  Howden,  English  Ambassador  to  Madrid. 

"Office  of  Foreign  affairs,  October  20,  1851. 

"My  Lord:  I  have  received  your  despatch  of  the  1st  inst., 
inclosing  a  note  receiv  I  by  you  from  the  marquis  of  Mi- 
raflores,  in  answer  to  yuars  of  the  26th  of  September, which 
expressed,  in  the  name  of  H.  M.,  the  wish  of  seeing  the 
Spanish  Government  imitate  the  example  of  New  Grana- 
da, which  has  proclaimed  the  total  abolition  of  slavery. 

"  With  regard  to  the  passage  wherein,  the  marquis  of 
Miraflores  declares  that  the  Spanish  Government  cannot 
understand  how  that  of  H.  M.  can  recommend  a  measure 
which  would  prove  fatal  to  the  natives  of  Cuba,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  recommends  Spain  to  conciliate  their 
goodwill,  I  beg  your  Lordship  will  make  the  Marquis  ob- 
serve that  the  slaves  form  a  considerable  and  an  undeniably 
important  part  of  the  population  of  Cuba;  that  any  steps 


\ 


157 

taken  towards  the  emancipation  of  these  slaves  will  be  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  recommendation  which  H.  M/s 
government  has  made  to  the  effect  that  measures  should 
be  taken  to  satisfy  the  natives  of  Cuba,  in  order  to  insure 
its  union  with  the  metropolis.  And  it  is  also  very  evident 
that  if  freedom  was  given  to  the  colored  population  of 
Cuba,  this  fact  would  create  a  powerful  element  of  resist- 
ance against  the  projects  of  annexing  the  Island  to  the 
United  States,  in  which  country  slavery  exists. 

"As  for  the  influence  which  the  emancipation  of  the  ne- 
groes would  exert  on  the  interests  of  the  whites  who  are 
landed  proprietors,  it  can  be  affirmed,  without  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, that  free  labor  is  less  costly  than  that  of  the 
slaves;  and  it  is  undeniable  that  hired  laborers  would  not 
be  such  dangerous  neighbors  to  the  wealthy  classes  as  are 
ill-treated  and  revengeful  slaves.  Besides,  it  is  a  truth 
inherent  to  the  principles  of  human  nature  that  the  slaves 
are  necessarily  more  or  less  ill  used;  while  it  is  equally 
evident  that  the  resentment  which  ill  treatment  always 
provokes  will  be  inevitable,  whatever  may  be  the  efforts  to 
smother  it. 

"  For  these  reasons  it  appears  to  me  that  the  communi- 
cation which  your  Lordship  was  charged  with  making,  con- 
cerning the  measure  adopted  by  the  government  of  New 
Granada,  does  not  deserve  to  be  considered  contrary  to  the 
benevolent  sentiments  which  her  Majesty's  government 
expressed  with  regard  to  the  natives  of  Cuba. — Palmer- 
ston." 

From  the  perusal  of  this  dispatch,  which,  as  will  be 
seen,  proves  the  justice  of  the  charges  made  by  the  Ame- 
rican press  against  the  representative  of  England  in 
Madrid,  even  though  his  efforts  to  create  a  chaos  in  the 
island  of  Cuba  by  the  unconditional  freedom  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand  negroes  were  but  the  official  expression  of 
superior  instructions,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  most 
difficult  questions  of  the  Western  hemisphere  are  treated 
with  levity  in  Europe,  unless  we  should  rather  attribute 
the  contents  of  said  dispatch  to  the  desire  of  reconciling, 
in  any  possible  manner,  the  contradiction  of  the  English 
chancellorship  in  its  antithetical  recommendations,  in 
order  to  present  it  in  the  least  unfavorable  light. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  and  since  the  consummate  skill  of 
the  Marquis  of  Miraflores,  aided  by  the  power  of  justice, 


J 


158 

had  amicably  but  energetically  repelled  the  most  dangerous 
suggestions  which  England  had  ever  made  against  Cuba, 
the  inextinguishable  fanaticism  of  the  English  aboli- 
tionists, which  learns  nothing  from  the  teachings  of  prac- 
tical history  but  gathers  therefrom  only  what  may  serve 
to  destroy  whatever  may  stand  in  the  way  of  its  exclusive 
interests,  retired  abashed  for  the  moment  within  the  limits 
of  the  constituted  international  laws;  not  with  the  pur- 
pose of  remaining  silent  and  inactive  for  any  length  of 
time,  but  rather  to  give  a  fresh  impulse  and  another  cha- 
racter to  their  projects  by  turbulent  means,  in  order  to 
see  if  they  would  thus  prove  more  efficacious  in  their 
definite  results.  With  this  end  in  view,  the  notes  ad- 
vocating the  repression  of  the  slave  trade  were  multiplied 
and  made  of  daily  recurrence,  and  so  were  the  interpella- 
tions in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  the  most  violent 
and  unjust  diatribes  of  the  English  Ministers  against  Spain 
and  against  the  island  of  Cuba. 

There  were  occasions  when  the  Spanish  government 
found  it  necessary  to  protest  energetically  against  certain 
offensive  censures  which  were  utterly  devoid  of  truth  ; 
but  although  by  taking  this  attitude  the  government 
succeeded  in  obtaining  the  apologies  which  are  so  easily 
furnished  in  such  cases  by  diplomatic  courtesy,  it  could 
not  prevent  the  English  abolitionists  from  persevering  in 
their  shameful  efforts  against  Spain  and  the  Spaniards. 

These  noisy  clamors,  which  daily  became  more  ex- 
aggeratfd,  were  the  prelude  to  a  new  combination  which 
was  formed  in  order  to  force  upon  Spain,  in  a  novel  man- 
ner, the  adoption  of  measures  which  would  prove  ruinous 
to  the  negro  question.  These  were  nothing  less  than  the 
establishment  of  the  right  of  search,  to  interfere  with  the 
slave  trade  in  the  plantations  of  the  colonial  possessions, 
in  which  places  such  proceedings  are  forbidden  by  the 
laws  ;  which  would  not  only  be  the  means  of  discrediting 
and  perverting  slavery,  and  of  destroying  the  interior 
order  by  which  that  institution  is  supported,  but  would 
also  convert  the  proprietors  into  bitter  enemies  of  the 
government  which  should  in  such  a  manner  disregard 
their  laws,  annul  their  claims  to  the  obedience  of  the 
laborers  and  the  respect  of  the  public,  and  attack  in  so 
dangerous  a  manner  their  lawful  interests. 

This,  as  will  readily  be  perceived,  was  another  attempt 


\ 


159 

to  introduce  into  the  colonies,  under  a  different  form,  the 
disorder  and  confusion  which  would  have  been  caused  by 
the  absolute  freedom  of  the  negroes  when  it  was  proposed 
by  Lord  Palmerston  through  Lord  Iiowden  ;  but,  as  the 
English  had  already  reason  to  suppose  that  this  proposi- 
tion would  be  repelled  with  all  the  power  that  the  Spanish 
government  might  boast,  instead  of  proceeding  personally 
and  directly  in  the  matter,  they  tried  to  compromise 
therein  some  other  governments. 

This  plot  was  being  concerted  at  the  time  when  the 
war  with  Morocco  was  bringing  into  notice  the  moral  and 
material  progress  of  Spain  ;  and  as  this  progress  had  be- 
come apparent  to  all  the  world,  from  the  facility  with 
which  fifty  thousand  men,  completely  armed  and  equipped, 
had  been  thrown  into  Africa,  without  any  neglect  or  even 
any  weakening  of  the  defences  in  the  Peninsula  and  abroad; 
as  well  as  from  the  abundance  of  specie  with  which  the 
government  attended  to  all  the  ordinary  and  extraordinary 
expenses,  and  to  the  payment  of  a  debt  which,  though  de- 
ferred without  difficulty  until  that  time,  was  suddenly  and 
urgently  claimed  by  the  creditor,  which  was  the  English 
government.  The  French  government,  or,  perhaps,  the 
Emperor  himself,  thought  the  time  had  come  for  Spain 
to  resume  her  former  rank  among  the  great  powers. 
This  was  proposed  by  the  Imperial  government,  the  nation 
most  interested  in  the  matter  taking  no  part  therein  ;  and 
then  it  was  that  it  occurred  to  the  English  Chancellor  to 
propose  to  France  and  the  United  States  the  establishment 
of  the  right  of  search  on  the  plantations  of  Cuba,  the  in- 
crease of  the  number  of  cruisers  in  the  waters  surrounding 
said  Island,  and  the  adoption  of  a  plan  of  emigration,  in 
China,  which  had  been  drawn  up  by  the  consular  agents 
of  the  nations  interested  in  the  question  in  concert  with 
the  authorities  of  that  vast  and  remote  empire. 

Of  course,  all  the  publicity  which  such  a  proposition 
demanded  was  given  to  it,  with  what  object  may  be  di- 
vined, and  on  this  head  the  Spanish  paper,  published  in 
London,  which  we  have  already  quoted,  made  the  follow- 
ing remarks  : 

"  It  is  now  high  time  that  the  Spanish  government 
should  seriously  take  this  question  into  consideration,  and 
refuse  to  allow  any  further  trifling  with  its  fame  and  that 
of  the  Spanish  nation.     In  order  to  accomplish  this  it  is 


l 


160 

necessary  that  Spain  should  thoroughly  understand  what 
is  now  transpiring,  and  that  she  should  possess  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  all  the  secret  springs  which  move  the  pup- 
pets in  this  show.  Here  Lord  John  Kussell  issues  official 
notes,  becomes  excited  and  thunders  forth  his  denuncia- 
tions, not  because  his  personal  repose  of  mind  is  disturbed 
by  the  commerce  in  slaves,  but  because  he  is  obliged  to 
obey  the  wishes,  the  caprices,  and  even  the  extravagancies 
of  influential  persons,  in  order  to  retain  his  political  po- 
sition. 

"These  persons  are,  in  turn,  influenced  by  the  employees 
of  the  different  societies,  which,  being  exposed  to  extinc- 
tion from  want  of  occupation,  are  obliged  to  get  up  some 
commotions  in  the  world  if  they  desire  the  continuance  of 
their  subscriptions,  without  which  there  would  be  no 
salaries  for  the  secretaries,  the  employees,  the  reporters, 
and  the  rest  of  that  innumerable  hungry  tribe  who  live  in 
this  country  at  the  expense  of  certain  manias  and  follies 
of  the  public.  This  is  the  secret  cause  of  the  outcry 
made  here  concerning  the  slave  trade." 

And  afterwards,  while  reflecting  on  the  apparent  rea- 
sons on  which  the  government  of  the  United  States 
founded  its  then  natural  desire  to  escape  from  seconding 
those  propositions  before  the  Spanish  government,  which 
apparent  reasons  formed  another  chapter  of  charges  and 
recriminations  ^against  the  authorities  of  the  island  of 
Cuba,  this  paper  continued  to  treat  the  matter  in  the 
following  words : 

"  As  for  the  United  States — what  can  be  more  accepta- 
ble for  them  than  the  amiable  complicity  and  voluntary 
blindness  of  England,  who  allows  them  the  undisturbed 
enjoyment  of  the  abundant  profits  accruing  from  the  slave 
trade,  while  she  throws  all  the  responsibility  and  all  the 
odium  upon  Spain  ? 

"  To  put  an  end  to  this  interesting  game,  it  is  only  ne- 
cessary that  Spain  should  display  a  little  frankness  and 
energy.  Let  her  government  commission  its  agents  in 
New  York  to  discover  the  operations  of  all  the  slavers  fit- 
ted out  in  that  port  ;  let  it,  through  its  representative  at 
Washington^  unceasingly* demand  the  detention  of  such 
vessels  ;  let  it  publish  in  the  Madrid  Gazette,  the  official 
notes  in  which  such  demands  may  be  made  ;  and  the 
world  will  not  delay  in  casting  the  odium  and  responsibil- 


v 


161 

ity  of  the  traffic  on  those  who  are  really  to  blame.  If  the 
Spanish  government  will  not  act  thu$,  Lord  John  Russell 
and  the  President  of  the  United  States  will  continue  to 
play  the  game  of  shuttlecock  with  its  reputation,  that 
being  an  amusement  which  suits  their  interests  and  costs 
them  but  little,  though  it  does  incalculable  damage  to 
Spain." 

It  appears  to  me  that  these  reasonings  of  the  Espanol 
de  Ambos  Mundos  were  not  far  from  right  in  their  manner 
of  sifting  the  question,  nor  were  they  devoid  of  justice.    At 
the  time  that  they  appeared  in  answer  to  the  charges  pre- 
ferred against  Spain  by  the  governments  of  England  and  of 
the  United   States,  the  latter  had  succeeded  in  freeing 
their  vessels  from  the  right  of  search,  to  which  they  had 
been  ignominiously  subjected  by  the  treaties  then  m  force, 
still  no  one  can  pretend  to  affirm — no  one  with  any  show 
of  truth — can  even  simply  state  that  the  United  States  ships 
were  not  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.     Just  about  that 
time  an  American  slaver  was  caught  in  frag  ant  i9  and  her 
captain  was  hung,  in  consequence  of  the  excitement  and 
antagonism  which  had  already  commenced  to  appear,  with 
all  the  symptoms  of  an  approaching  civil  war  between  the 
two  great  sections  of  .that  Republic,  which  are  now  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  mutual  destruction,  and  not  because 
such  punishment  was  customary  in  such  cases  ;  for,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  well  known  to  those  who  are  experienced  in 
matters  pertaining  to  the  traffic,  that,  before  this  war  broke 
out,  four-fifths  of  the  vessels  engaged  in  the  slave  trade 
were  Anglo- American,  and  that  these  slavers  were  fitted 
out  and  prepared  in  the  ports  of  the  Union  without  any 
attempts  at  secresy,  and  with  full  confidence  in  the  suc- 
cess of  their  expeditions. 

It  was  doubtless  for  this  reason  that  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment definitely  and  absolutely  rejected  the  plan  of 
introducing  coolies  into  the  States  where  negro  labor  was  an 
institution.  This  government  also  said  :  "In  the  United 
States,  where  slavery  exists,  these  heathen  Chinese  would 
demoralize  the  temperate,  pacific  and  contented  negroes, 
among  whom  there  are  great  numbers  who  are  sincere 
Christians. " 

Such  is  the  history  of  England's  efforts  to  abolish  slave- 
ry in  the  principal  countries  where  it  existed  and  where 
N  it  still  flourishes.     In  the  narration  of  these  facts  I  have 


i 


162   - 

confined  myself  simply  to  those  relating  to  the  French  and 
Spanish  Colonies,  omitting  all  mention  of  Brazil  and  the 
United  States,  "because  of  the  former  I  have  but  few  data 
in  my  possession,  and  because  it  would  now  be  extremely 
impolitic,  in  speaking  of  the  latter,  to  enter  into  details 
which  would  scandalize  the  world,  and,  doubly  so,  to  pub- 
lish them  in  a  work  which  is  based  on  conciliatory  prin- 
ciples. 

Having  ended  this  explanatory  narration  of  facts  which 
are  supported  by  authentic  documents,  it  is  now  time  that 
we  should  analyze  the  effects  produced  on  humanity  and 
Civilization  by  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  negroes  in  those 
countries  where  slavery  has  been  abolished  ;  on  the  public 
regard  for  international  law,  by  the  treaties  which  tend  to 
the  destruction  of  the  right  of  redemption  ;  and  on  the 
future  of  Africa  in  its  moral  and  material  interests,  by  the 
philanthropic  labors  of  the  Society  in  London. 


v 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


I 

Remarks  on  the  unskillful  manner  in  which  the  treaties  that  prohibit 
the  redemption  of  the  negroes  were  drawn  up. — The  prohibition  of  the 
redeemption  is  opposed  to  the  abolition  of  slavery :  this  proposition  de- 
monstrated.— The  treaties  now  in  force  in  these  matters  are  also  opposed 
to  the  liberal  tendencies  and  ideas  of  progress  which  may  havS  originated 
them. — Historic  results  produced  by  this  prohibition  in  countries  peo- 
pled by  negroes. — The  bloody  and  already  famous  scenes  in  Dahomey. 
— Disastrous  effects  of  said  treaties  in  the  slave  holding  countries  which 
have  emancipated  their  laborers. — The  English  Colonies. — The  French 
Colonies. — The  Republic  of  Haiti. — Moral  and  material  state  of  the  Span- 
ish possessions. — In  the  countries  where  the  institution  of  slavery  exists, 
the  number  of  slaves  has  increased  since  the  redemption  was  prohibited. 
— The  blame  which  on  this  account  has  been  laid  upon  the  authorities  of 
those  countries  might  be  attributed,  for  the  same  causes  and  with  great- 
er reason,  to  the  English  cruisers. — The  blame,  however,  belongs  exclu- 
sively to  the  treaties  on  this  matter  now  in  force. 


Many  times,  upon  consulting  the  data  and  bringing  to 
mind  the  events  which  are  to  substantiate  my  views  in 
this  chapter,  my  conviction  has  been  confirmed  that  the" 
ideas  of  the  most  eminent  men,  when  treating  of  facts 
bearing  upon  their  own  reputation,  possess  but  little 
depth,  if  indeed  they  are  not  characterized  by  total  want 
of  force.  And  this  conviction,  which  the  vanity  of  men 
who  have  obtained  no  political  prominence  will  not  admit, 
and  which  a  churlish  wisdom  would  call  unjustifiable, 
since  I  am  myself  open  to  the  charge,  can  be  justified,  not 
alone  by  reference  to  the  tempestuous  and  never  properly 
understood  question  of  slavery,  but  also  to  almost  all  ques- 
tions of  international  polity  in  which  it  has  been  necessary 
to  harmonize  conflicting  interests  and  views. 

Consult  the  diplomatic  history  of  peace  and  war ;  the 
substrata  of  offensive  and  defensive  alliances,  and  the  trea- 


j 


164 

ties  which  have  ended  wars,  bearing  carefully  in  mind  the 
various  interests  brought  to  light  by  the  contest,  and 
nought  will  be  found  but  ephemeral  settlements  ;  adjust- 
ments without  positive  results  ;  flaws,  unnoticed  at  the 
time,  but  leaving  the  door  open  for  inevitable  discord 
sooner  or  later,  and  affording  pretexts  for  renewing  the 
clash  of  arms,  or  for  interminable  disputes  among  law- 
makers. 

"  Great  men,"  said  a  deep  thinker,  "  are  like  great 
mountains,  they  grow  smaller  the  nearer  we  approach  to 
them,"  and  I  assert  that  in  the  management  ef  human  af- 
fairs our  intelligence  is  so  limited,  and  our  strength  so  un- 
equal to  the  task,  it  may  well  happen  that  great  mountains 
may  form  an  exception  to  the  rule,  but  not  so  with  great 
men. 

And  this  rule,  the  truth  of  which  the  generality  of  pub- 
lic transactions  will  easily  demonstrate,  becomes  infallible 
when  applied  to  slavery,  for  the  most  illustrious  statesmen 
of  the  civilized  world  have  in  vain  sought  for  the  best 
method  of  treating  it,  and  their  efforts  seem  to  have  been 
only  instrumental  in  increasing  the  chaos.  This  is  evi- 
dent in  the  present  status  of  the  negro,  whose  condition 
they  have  tried  to  ameliorate,  as  well  in  Africa  as  in  the 
Colonies ;  in  the  laws  concerning  the  rights  of  nations,  as 
they  exist  to-day  between  all  governments  ;  in  the  indus- 
trial standing  of  those  countries  where  the  system  of 
enforced  labor  once  prevailed,  but  has  been  abolished  ;  and 
in  the  arena  where  this  vexed  question,  which  both  science 
and  empiricism  have  handled  so  much  and  so  fruitlessly,  is 
now  seeking  a  solution  in  blood. 

The  extremely  limited  intelligence  with  which  God  has 
endowed  the  negro,  that,  being  of  the  human  species,  he 
might  not  be  confounded  with  the  lower  animals,  will  in- 
evitably render  futile  all  efforts  of  the  kind  hitherto  made 
in  his  behalf.  Neither  distinguished  statesmen  nor  philan- 
thropical  societies,  nor  elaborate  treaties,  are  of  any  avail, 
and  so  far  have  only  resulted  in  bringing  about  the  present 
deplorable  state  of  affairs,  and  if  persisted  in  will  end  in 
the  subversion  of  order  and  the  substitution  of  confusion  ; 
the  well-being  of  a  life  of  industry  will  be  replaced  by  the 
license  of  an  enervating  and  demoralizing  indolence,  the 
fruitfulness  of  honorable  toil  by  the  ruin  of  great  territo- 
ries, the  respect  due  to  international  rights  by  vainglorious 


v 


165 

boastings  and  the  bitter  taunts  of  unjustifiable  recrimina- 
tion, the  peaceful  interchange  of  the  necessaries  and  luxu- 
ries of  life,  by  the  divided  interests  of  separate  sections  of 
a  great  nation,  the  views  entertained  by  the  one  being  an- 
tagonistical  to  and  incompatible  with  the  material  wants 
of  the  other,  and  finally  instead  of  peace,  that  inestimable 
boon  which  the  genius  of  the  age  demands,  the  world  will 
witness  with  abhorrence  the  recurrence  of  exterminating 
and  cruel  wars,  only  equaled  by  those  which  characterized 
the  barbarous  ages. 

God  forbid  that  I  should  deny  the  good  intent  of  the . 
efforts  which  have  been  the  cause  of  so  much  disorder. 
Slavery  !  that  barbarous  institution,  offspring  of  the  prim- 
itive ages,  criminal  compromise  between  human  liberty  and 
an  imperative  necessity  for  labor,  foul  emission  of  that 
false  policy  which  has  been  the  accompaniment  of  conquest 
and  invasion  since  the  time  of  G-od's  chosen  people. 
Slavery,  whose  name  became  repugnant  to  the  hearing, 
even  where  in  reality  it  existed  but  in  name,  as  soon 
as  the  idea  of  emancipation  had  reached  its  apogee  in  the 
course  of  the  world's  changes. 

But  it  was  said,  they  traffic  in  human  flesh  in  Africa, 
and  in  America  a  part  of  the  human  family  exists  in  a 
state  of  perpetual  slavery.  And  this  obtains  and  is  prac- 
tised legally  among  people  with  whom  we  are  forced  to 
commune,  and  the  right  so  to  do  is  guaranteed  by  existing 
codes  in  free  nations  ! 

Naturally  enough,  this  ultraism  prompted,  no  doubt,  by 
true  charity  and  unquestionable  faith,  took  root  among 
the  masses  and  became  the  subject  of  fiery  discussions. 
But  although  this  occurred  among  the  multitude  whose 
manifestations  are  always  passionate,  and  whose  arguments 
are  seldom  if  ever  well  digested,  and  notwithstanding  the 
seeming  injustice  of  opposing  a  pagan  institution,  even 
though  *it  existed  only  in  name,  yet  a  careful  analysis  of 
the  subject-should  have  been  resorted  to  as  the  only  means 
of  regulating  these  extravagant  notions,  so  as  not  to  ex- 
ceed the  bounds  of  the  revolutionary  spirit  which  had 
commenced  to  cry  out  against  negro  labor. 

.  That  the  majority  should  protest  against  and  demand 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  since  under  that  name  the  re- 
demption of  the  African  race  from  barbarism,  their  civili- 
zation, and  even  their  absolute  eventual  emancipation  by 


j 


166 

means  of  labor,  had  been  established,  was  but  natural  and 
praiseworthy,  emanating,  as  it  did,  from  a  liberal  people, 
ignorant  though  they  were  of  the  true  merits  of  the  case. 
But,  that  statesmen  allowing  themselves  to  be  led  by  the 
horde,  should  endorse  their  errors,  through  sinful  ignorance; 
that  those  invested  with  high  powers  and  entrusted  with 
the  administration  of  justice,  should  attempt  to  solve  by 
the  criterion  of  public  sentiment,  and  that  alone,  one  of  the 
most  intricate  questions  which  humanity  could  possibly  sub- 
mit to  the  judgment  of  the  most  privileged  understandings; 
finally,  that  governments,  supposed  to  be  the  abodes  of 
greatest  prudence  and  wisdom  should  unanimously  agree 
upon  a  policy  without  the  precedent  of  experiment,  lay 
claim  to  infallibility  and  persevere  in  their  folly  after  so 
many  years  of  an  experience  with  results  contrary  to  their 
decision,  is  most  wonderful,  and  suffices  to  form  a  chapter 
of  terrible  accusations  against  the  authors  and  abettors 
thereof,  when  we  reflect  upon  the  endless  heartburnings 
which  their  course  is  producing  in  the  world. 

I  am  ignorant  of  the  course  of  9  procedure  usual  in 
matters  of  universal  import  when  presented  to  govern- 
ments for  adjudication,  but  were  one  to  judge  of  it  by 
what  has  taken  place  respecting  this  matter  of  negro 
slavery,  he  would  most  probably  be  led  to  suppose  that 
the  private  opinions  of  Ministers  had  alone  been  con- 
sulted, now  enveloped  in  the  haze  of  erroneous  theories, 
and  again  clearly  indicating  the  object  arrived  at.  But, 
although  I  confess  to  this  ignorance,  never  having  been 
officially  connected  with  the  subject,  I  think  myself 
capable  of  pointing  out  the  course  most  likely  to  succeed, 
if  I  am  not  blinded  by  self  conceit. 

And  I  say  this  because  the  question  referred  to  being 
in  itself  intricate  and  difficult  to  handle,  even  when  shorn 
of  the  material  interests  liable  to  suffer  in  its  solution, 
and  confined  to  the  principle  which  gave  it  birth,  the  first 
point  which  naturally  suggests  itself  is  to  inquire  if  the 
demands  of  public  opinion,  in  the  shape  presented  to  us, 
would  be  conducive  to  the  desired  end. 

The  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery  are  by  no  means  one  and'  the  same.  I  am  even  of 
the  opinion  that  the  first  renders  the  other  impossible  ; 
and  I  also  believe  that  the  truly  humanitarian  intent  of 
the  philanthropical ,  people  who  clamored  against  the  in- 


v 


167 

stitution  of  enforced  negro  labor,  on  account  of  the  name 
it  bore,  had  in  view  the  abolition  of  said  system  rather 
than  the  prevention  of  the  redemption. 

The  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  being  agreed  upon 
without  reference  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  resulted  in 
perpetuating  the  latter  in  the  territories  where  it  had  but 
a  precarious  existence  before,  because  the  involuntary  ser- 
vitude of  the  blacks  having  been  recognized  as  of  im- 
perative necessity  wherever  experience  had  established  it, 
legislators  at  once  commenced  to  draw  the  reins  tighter 
and  to  deprive  the  industrious  slave  of  the  right  which  he 
before  possessed  to  better  his  condition  or  ransom  himself, 
while  the  cupidity  of  their  masters  prompted  them  to 
seek  means  for  their  reproduction  by  marriage.  All,  how- 
ever, with  the  evident  and  very  natural  object  of  pre- 
venting a  scarcity  of  labor  on  their  plantations. 

In  addition  to  this  inferred  wrong  against  natural 
rights,  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  and  the  disposi- 
tion to  perpetuate  servitude  through  the  raising  of  negroes 
born  in  that  condition  without  aspirations  to  better  them- 
selves in  the  countries  where  these  means  were  adopted, 
all  kinds  of  intellectual  instruction  was  prohibited.  And 
as  physiology  and  phrenology  both  induced  the  supposi- 
tion that  cultivation  would  have  its  effect  upon  the  race 
and  improve  its  intellectual  capacity,  in  the  course  of  one 
or  more  generations,  legislators  actuated  more  by  self-in- 
terest than  regard  for  the  poor  unfortunates,  forbid  them 
all  intellectual  food  as  though  it  were  poison,  in  order 
that  their  offspring  might  not  be  superior  to  their  an- 
cestors when  with  their  savage  tribes  in  Africa  or  Asia. 

By  this  course,  which  moreover  did  not  prevent  the  im- 
portation of  slaves  into  said  countries  when  it  was  thought 
they  were  needed,  and  which  we  might  almost  say  con- 
tinued without  interruption  worthy  of  note  from  the  time 
the  treaties  were  made  against  the  slave  trade  until  the 
war  commenced  in  the  Southern  part  of  the  United 
States,  the  philanthropy  of  the  abolitionists  miscarried 
even  while  confining  itself  within  the  limits  of  the  com- 
pact, for  many  slave  owners  finding  traffic  in  slaves  more 
profitable  than  working  their  plantations,  without  giving 
up  however,  the  latter,  devoted  themselves  to  the  raising 
and  sale  of  negroes  upon  a  grand  scale  ;  carrying'  them 
frequently  in  vessels  freighted  on  purpose,  and  with  all 


; 


168 

the  requirements  of  legal  commerce  from  one  State  to 
another. 

To  sum  up,  if  the  prohibition  of  the  traffic  in  negroes 
in  Africa  was  done  with  the  view  of  doing  away  with 
slavery  and  of  putting  an  end  to  the  loathsome  dealing  in 
human  flesh,  its  most  immediate  results  were  directly  the 
opposite  of  those  intended,  since  slavery  was  strengthened 
where  before  individual  labor  was  allowed,  and  the  trade 
in  negroes  which  up  to  this  time  had  been  confined  to 
African  prisoners,  not  only  increased  to  the  scandal  of 
public  rights  between  Africa  and  America,  but  it  also  in- 
creased and  was  made  legal  under  the  very  treaties  which 
were  intended  to  put  an  end  to  it. 

This  really  happened  in  the  United  States,  that  is,  in 
the  most  liberal  country  in  the  world,  if  we  are  to  take 
into  consideration  the  provisions  of  its  republican  and 
democratic  constitution,  and  therefore  it  is  not  strange 
that  among  a  people  who  could  not,  owing  to  the  evident 
spirit  of  their  laws,  conscientiously  oppose  the  freeing  of 
such  industrious  slaves  as  might  be  able  to  acquire  it  as 
the  fruit  of  their  labor  and  good  conduct,  should  attempt 
to  take  advantage  of  the  weak'  points  in  the  treaties  which 
prohibited  the  slave  trade,  and  carry  it  on  in  violation  of 
the  authorities. 

And  this  course,  according  to  them,  was  the  more  praise- 
worthy, as  by  this  means  legislation  concerning  the  negro 
was  enabled  to  preserve  its  liberal  and  protective  features 
intact,  without  presenting  the  loathsome  spectacle  of 
human  breeding  pens  for  public  sale,  and  without  the 
transgression  of  the  law  concerning  the  slave  trade  being 
considered  as  of  much  moment  either,  since  they  knew 
that  their  action,  although  illegal,  prevented  the  slaughter 
of  these  unfortunates,  and  by  civilizing  them,  made  them 
useful  to  mankind  and  themselves. 

But  laying  these  considerations  aside  and  confining  our- 
selves to  the  object  of  the  present  chapter,  which  is  to 
show  that  all  the  concerted  plans  and  international  com- 
pacts made  to  abolish  slavery,  have  brought  about,  when 
put  in  practice,  the  reverse  of  what  was  intended,  which 
was,  the  moral  improvement  of  the  African  race  by  means 
of  liberty,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  colonies  under  a  sys- 
tem of  free  labor,  let  us  proceed  to  prove  our  position  by 
means  of  such  data  as  seem  to  be  the  most  appropriate 


v 


%  169 

among  those  at  hand.  Should  we  succeed,  the  ravings  of 
fanatical  sects  will  be  discredited,  and  by  proving  clearly 
the  want  of  foresight  of  celebrated  statesmen,  the  arrogant 
pretensions  of  human  judgment  to  infallibility  will  receive 
one  more  reproof. 

We  have  already  said  that  the  prohibition  of  the  slave 
trade,  without  the  abolition  of  slavery,  rivited  the  chains 
of  the  latter  in  some  places,  and  nowhere  was  it  carried 
out  effectually  as  a  law  ;  and  to  corroborate  both  asser- 
tions, I  appeal  to  the  laws  of  the  slave  States  of  the 
Anglo-American  republic  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other  to  the  extraordinary  increase  of  the  colored  popula- 
tion in  the  Spanish  possessions,  from  the  year  1835  up  to 
this  date,  in  which  time  it  has  doubled.  This  is  a  noto- 
rious fact,  and  figures  in  all  the  statistical  reports  which 
have  been  published  during  said  interval,  by  which  it  is 
also  seen,  that  said  increase  is  equally  divided  between  the 
slave  and  free  population,  and  that  nearly  all  of  the  former 
are  imported,  particularly  in  the  island  of  Cuba. 

As  I  do  not  intend  to  repel  the  charge  which  the  aboli- 
tionists make  against  Spain  on  this  account,  nor  much 
more  to  attempt  to  vindicate  the  Spanish  authorities  from 
that  of  having  connived  thereat,  there  can  be  no  reason 
for  concealing  the  truth.       i 

Existing  laws  in  the  slave  States  tend  to  corroborate 
my  assertions  concerning  slaveiy  and  the  traffic  in  blacks 
in  the  United  States,  but  lest  some  of  my  readers  should 
believe  that  these  laws  are  more  honored  in  the  breach 
than  in  the  observance,  which  is  the  case  in  other  places, 
I  may  be  permitted  to  make  some  extracts  from  a  letter, 
dated  Boston,  August  21,  1860,  and  published  in  the 
London  Morning  Post.     It  says  as  follows  : 

"  Present  occurrences  prove  that  those  who  clamor  for 
the  restoration  of  the  traffic  in  African  slaves,  are  not 
actuated  by  mere  caprice,  but  that  the  state  of  public 
opinion  in  America  upon  this  subject,  is  such,  that  were 
the  laws  against  the  trade  to  be  abolished,  the  measure 
would  be  received  with  great  favor  by  not  a  small  number 
of  our  business  men.  Restore  it  to  the  position  it  occu- 
pied in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  in  three 
months,  or  even  sooner,  there  would  be  five  hundred 
American  vessels  engaged  in  it.  Thirty  years  ago,  public 
opinion   would   have    sufficed   to   prevent  this,  but  said 


; 


170 

opinion  has  changed  very  much  since  1850.  This  is  due 
to  the  efforts  of'  the  abolitionists,  for,  they  having  directed 
formidable  attacks  against  slavery,  its  defenders  were 
forced  to  bring  to  bear  arguments  which  proved  to  be  in- 
controvertible, and  convincing  not  only  to  themselves,  but 
uwi  ortunately  to  others  also,  showing  that  the  institution 
was  in  itself  a  very  good  one,  from  which  it  naturally  fol- 
lowed that  to  reopen  the  trade  would  be  both  useful  and 
proper. 

"  Logically,  this  cannot  be  contested,  for  there  is  no 
argument  in  favor  of  slavery  which  is  not  equally  favor- 
able to  the  slave  trade.  Moreover,  does  not  the  coasting 
trade  in  slaves'  exist  ?  If  an  inhabitant  of  Virginia  can 
legally  send  five  hundred  negroes  to  Texas,  and  if  the 
cargo  finds  protection  under  the  American  flag,  backed  up 
by  the  cannon  of  the  republic,  why  may  not  Texans  be 
allowed  to  fit  out  a  ship,  send  her  to  Africa,  and  obtain 
there  five  hundred  chattels  for  fifty  thousand  dollars,  in- 
stead of  paying  Virginia,  at  least,  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  them  ? 

"  I  know  merchants  who  would  willingly  contract,  the 
law  allowing  it,  to  land  five  hundred  Africans  in  Texas, 
#t  the  rate  of  one  hundred  dollars  each,  and  who  would 
carry  on  the  business  with  the  same  regularity  with  which 
they  transport,  to-day,  white  emigrants  from  Germany  or 
Ireland  to  New  York  or  Boston.  To-day  a  Virginia 
negro  is  considered  cheap  at  twelve  hundred  dollars,  and  a 
very  likely  woman  is  sometimes  sold  as  high  as  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars." 

And  now  that  we  cannot  doubt  the  practical  results  of 
legislation,  nor  justifiably  deny  the  part  which  it  had  in 
preventing  the  redemption  of  Africans,  or  more  properly 
speaking,  of  African  prisoners,  let  us  proceed  to  the  con- 
sideration of  what  took  place  in  Africa,  in  consequence  of 
the  prohibition,  brought  about  by  existing  treaties,  through 
the  persistent  initiative  of  England,  and  the  blind  suff-. 
ranee  of  other  nations. 

It  is  proper  to  call  to  mind  at  this  juncture  what  has 
been  said  in  former  chapters,  respecting  the  status  of  the 
negro  in  his  mother  country.  That  uncivilized,  pagan 
and  barbarous  state  which  is  in  some  places  that  of  can- 
nabalism,  and  in  all,  most  ferocious  and  bloody,  looking 
as  they  do   upon  war  as  their  ordinary  avocation,  and 


v 


171 

slaughtering  their  prisoners  by  thousands,  before  colonial 
nations  invented  a  system  for  their  redemption,  and  again 
doing  so  since  the  slave  trade  has  been  stopped. 

We  must  also  recollect  the  changes  eminently  favorable 
to  humanity  which  took  place  in  the  conduct  of  these 
savages,  as  soon  as  their  cupidity  caused  them  to  treat 
their  captives  with  less  ferocity,  and  also  the  transition 
which  these  poor  unfortunates  experienced  from  an  abject 
and  miserable  life  to  one  of  Christian  civilization,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  a  system  of  moderate  labor,  as  laid 
down  in  the  regulations  for  their  government. 

In  view  of  all  this,  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  we 
should  take  into  account  the  evil  caused  by  the  prohibi- 
tion of  said  system  of  redemption  in  those  countries  where 
it  formally  existed,  nor  that  we  should  demonstrate  be- 
yond a  peradventure  and  by  the  most  horrible  examples 
which  history  can  produce,  the  fact  that  such  evil  was 
caused  thereby. 

I  have  before  me  a  short  treatise,  published  in  France, 
at  the  time  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  was  then  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  authorship  was  shared  by  two 
travellers,  perfectly  well  informed  concerning  the  state  of 
the  negro,  both  in  Africa  and  in  the  colonies,  and  whose 
opinions  were  entirely  unbiassed,  as  is  evident  from  the 
independent  stand  which  they  take.  In  fact  upon  reading 
it  studiously  and  thoughtfully,  one  might  at  times  readily 
imagine  it  to  be  the  production  of  the  London  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  and  at  others  that  of  some  slaveholder  of 
Bourbon  or  Martinique. 

In  this  brochure,  entitled,  "  Physiology  of  the  Negro," 
there  is  mentioned  an  occurrence  more  criminal  in  those 
who  quietly  witnessed  it,  than  in  the  ferocious  actors 
themselves,,  and  since  any  narative  would  not  do  justice  to 
the  account  given  by  said  travellers,  I  submit  it  to  my 
readers  in  their  own  words  : 

"  One  of  the  terrible  consequences  of  the  prohibition  of 
the  slave  trade,  was  the  dreadful  massacre  of  five  hundred 
prisoners  of  war,  which  took  place  in  Madagascar,  a  short 
time  before  the  death  of  Kadama. 

"  The  King  of  the  Ovas  sent  from  his  capital  Zannana- 
rivoce,  at  present  Emyrna,  a  great  army  to  subdue  the 
negroes  of  Betanima,  savage  hords  who  had  refused  to 
recognize  his  authority.     The  two  forces  met  and  fought 


j 


172 

with  fury  ;  the  number  of  dead  and  wounded  on  both 
sides  being  very  great ;  but  at  last  the  Betanimans  were 
defeated  and  left  500  captives  in  the  hands  of  the  con- 
querors, who  were  taken  to  the  coast  contiguous  to  Tama- 
tava,  to  be  sold,  as  the  natives  of  the  interior  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  law  which  prohibited  the  slave  trade. 

"  The  orders  of  King  Radama  were  decisive,  viz.,  that 
at  all  hazards  the  prisoners  should  be  sold  ;  and  great 
was  the  joy  of  the  chiefs  of  the  army,  when  from  the 
highest  peak  of  the  Ancaves  they  beheld  three  vessels 
riding  at  anchor  in  the  roads,  which  according  to  informa- 
tion communicated  by  the  peaceable  inhabitants,  had 
come  for  the  purpose  of  buying  slaves. 

"The  prisoners  were  not  long  in  reaching  the  coast ;  but 
great  was  the  disappointment  of  their  conductors  when 
they  found  that  one  of  the  vessels  was  an  English  sloop- 
of-war,  whose  duty  it  was  to  enforce  the  law  both  on  the 
coast  of  Madagascar  and  Bourbon. 

"  Notwithstanding  this,  the  chiefs  proposed,  to  the  cap- 
tains, the  sale  of  their  captives  at  the  moderate  price  of 
twenty  dollars  a  head — an  offer  which  was  of  course  de- 
clined. The  price  was  then  gradually  lowered  to  fifteen, 
ten,  and  lastly  to  five  dollars,  but  without  any  result,  as 
t^ie  price  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  law,  which  would 
in  fact  have  been  violated  by  any  bargain  whatever  the 
amount  might  be.  At  last  the  Ova  warriors  offered  to 
deliver  their  prisoners  to  the  Europeans  for  the  paltry  sum 
fof  one  dollar  a  head,  which  was  again  refused. 

"  The  delirium  of  rage  then  succeeded  to  the  anxiety 
for  gain ;  they  fell  upon  their  defenceless  captives,  and 
the  five  hundred  Betanimans  were  inhumanly  butchered 
on  the  beach  of  Tamatava,  without  any  interference  being 
attempted  by  the  captains  to  prevent  this  act  of  un- 
paralleled ferocity. 

"  The  captains  should  have  bought  the  slaves,  embarked 
them,  and  carried  them  to  some  distant  part  of  the  island 
far  from  their  enemies.  Humanity,  which  is  so  often  in- 
voked, demanded  this  transgression  of  the  law.  'Those 
negroes  would  have  been  bought,  it  is  true  ;  but  by  giving 
them  their  freedom  of  which  they  would  have  been  but 
temporarily  deprived  in  order  to  save  their  lives,  the  vio- 
lation of  the  law  ceased.  What  1  was  it  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  of  humanity  to  coolly  witness  such 


v 


173 

terrible  butchery,  when  three  English  vessels  were  pro- 
vided with  the  means  of  preventing  it  ? 

"  We  leave  it  to  the  philanthropic  abolitionists  to  solve 
this  problem." 

I  fancy  I  see  a  smile  of  incredulity  on  the  lips  of  those 
who,  having  no  knowledge  of  facts  in  relation  to  the 
negroes,  will  look  upon  this  dreadful  narrative  as  an  absurd 
and  impertinent  invention.  And  I  even  suspect  that  it 
will  be  disbelieved  by  other  persons,  who,  though  better 
informed  are  suspicious  of  the  exaggerations  of  both  ten- 
dencies, the  anti-slavery  and  the  pro-slavery,  if  in  addition 
to  it  there  were  not  more  certain  and  undeniable  evidence 
of  horrors  no  less  terrible,  taken  from  an  English  journal. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  alluded  to  the  barbarous 
instincts  of  the  King  of  Dahomey  ;  that  stupid  sover- 
eign of  a  land  of  ferocious  customs,  who,  to  celebrate 
some  festivity,  actually  floated  his  canoes  through  a 
lake  of  human  blood.  My  readers  have  also  seen  that  on 
ordering  an  attack  to  be  made  against  the  inhabitants  of 
the  neighboring  country  for  that  sinister  purpose,  this 
blood-thirsty  villain  had  resolved,  if  possible,  to  sell  the 
young  and  vigorous  captives,  or  to  sacrifice  them  with  the 
rest  if  no  opportunity  of  selling   them   presented  itself. 

From  the  detailed  accounts,  published  by  the  English, 
who  had  commercial  relations  with  that  barbarian,  these 
facts  became  known  to  the  civilized  nations  in  time  to 
prevent,  if  they  would,  that  butchery  ;  and  it  would  be 
but  natural  that,  upon  hearing  such  news,  the  Government 
of  Great  Britain,  the  then  zealous  initiator  of  benevolent 
intentions  in  behalf  of  the  negroes,  should  hasten  to  pre- 
vent by  every  means  in  its  power  the  butchery  which  was 
contemplated  ;  and  which  was  what  all  expected  would 
be  done,  especially  as  the  cruisers  of  the  English  royal 
navy  frequent  that  neighborhood  more  particularly.  The 
reader,  then,  may  imagine  our  surprise  when  some  months 
afterwards  the  democratic  journal  of  Madrid,  La  Dis- 
cusion,  in  its  number  of  30th  of  May,  1861,  said  as 
follows : 

"  We  copy  from  an  English  newspaper  the  following 
news  showing  the  horrible  state  in  which  the  negroes  in 
Africa  live. 

"  The  wholesale  murder  has  taken  place  in  Dahomey, 
notwithstanding  all  our  philanthropic  entreaties.      Two 


; 


174 

thousand  men  and  as  many  women  and  children  have 
fallen  victims  to  the  cruelty  of  those  rulers,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom in  that  country,  on  the  death  of  a  King  of  Daho- 
mey." 

"  This  barbarous  custom  is  founded  on  the  popular  be- 
lief that  a  sovereign  ought  to  be  served  beyond  the  grave 
by  an  adequate  number  of  his  subjects;  and  as  in  para- 
dise he  continues  to  be  king,  he  would  consider  himself' 
humiliated  if  he  had  but  a  small  retinue  of  attendants. 
The  veneration  in  which  he  is  held  while  living,  cannot  be 
compared  with  even  that  professed  for  the  most  despotic 
and  theocratic  monarchs  of  Asia. 

"  The  principal  personages  cannot  approach  him  with- 
out bowing  their  heads  to  the  ground,  and  licking  the  dust 
as  a  proof  of  their  humility.  He  is  believed  to  be  free 
from  the  ordinary  passions  and  necessities  of  human  kind, 
and  in  Dahomey  it  is  considered  criminal  to  say  that  the 
king  eats,  drinks,  sleeps,  or  performs  any  other  function 
proper  to  ordinary  mortals.  The  human  victims  go 
willingly  to  death,  as  they  believe  they  gain  paradise  in 
this  way,  although  they  do  not  expect  better  treatment 
there  than  they  received  in  this  world.  Mahometanism 
is  the  basis  of  this  superstition,  and  the  Dahomians 
usually  carry  amulets  with  short  sentences  from  the  Koran 
inscribed  upon  them. 

"What  is  most  singular  is,  that  the  ferocious  people  are 
generally  polite  and  even  courteous,  when  the  demon  of 
war  does  not  possess  them.  When  this  is  the  case  their 
ferocity  knows  no  bounds,  and  the  women  vie  with  the 
men  in  their  cruelty.  The  King  of  Dahomey  has  a  re- 
giment of  aniazons  who  surpass  in  blood-thirstiness  all 
the  rest  of  his  soldiers. 

"  The  tutelar  divinity  of  Dahomey  is  said  to  be  a  tiger  ! 
It  is  high  time  that  European  intervention  should  put  an 
end  to  such  atrocities.  That  country  is  worthy  of  a  better 
fate.  Few  of  the  adjoining  districts  can  surpass  it  in 
fertility.  It  is  situated  on  the  slave  coast,  with  Ashantee 
on  the  west,  and  extends  forty  miles  to  the  G-ulf  of 
Guinea.  It  produces  pine  apples,  melons,  oranges,  sweet 
potatoes,  and  many  other  tropical  fruits.  Indigo  is 
abundant,  and  tobacco  grows  well.  A  kind  of  indigenous 
cotton  also  grows  here  which  is  not- of  very  inferior  qual- 
ity, notwithstanding  the  want  of  culture. 


v 


175 


a 


It  is  more  difficult,  we  know,  to  eradicate  a  barbarous 
custom  when  it  is  founded  on  an  innate  superstition,  than 
when  it  is  merely  the  result  of  tyranny  in  the  rulers  ;  but 
humanity  requires  us  to  destroy,  if  possible,  the  source 
of  so  many  horrors  ;  and  the  country,  in  a  commercial 
point  of  view,  well  deserves  our  attention  and  our  aid. (1; 

( I)  Owing  to  the  exaggerations  in  which  travellers  are  apt  to  indulge, 
I  have  often  feared  to  he  mistaken  in  my  judgments  and  comments  upon 
the  affairs  of  Africa,  and  have  therefore  hesitated  in  accepting  their  ac- 
counts whenever  they  referred  to  such  terrible  acts.  For.  this  reason, 
which  is  worthy  of  the  consideration  of  every  just  and  upright  mind,  I 
have  omitted  to  insert  in  this  book  some  narratives  of  facts  which  are 
still  more  revolting  and  horrifying  than  those  which  appear  in  it.  In 
order  that  such  as  appear  in  this  work  may  not  excite  incredulity  from 
the  terrible  nature  of  the  facts  which  they  expose,  I  think  it  well  to  in- 
sert in  this  place  in  the  form  of  a  note,  the  following  letter  of  a  Spanish 
missionary,  recently  published  in  La  Revista  Catolica  of  Barcelona,  and 
La  Verdad  Catolica  of  Havana.  The  missionary,  writer  of  this  letter,  is 
personally  known  in  both  the  cities  named ;  and  from  the  encomiums 
made  of  his  virtues  by  the  Catalan  paper,  and  the  information  I  have  per- 
sonally obtained  respecting  him,  in  the  island  of  Cuba  recently  (Septem- 
ber 1,  1863),  after  having  completed  this  work,  I  do  not  hesitate  impli- 
citly to  believe  the  entire  contents  of  his  said  letter,  and  to  vouch  for  its 
veracity.  Here,  then,  is  the  document  alluded  to,  which  on  many  ac- 
counts is  very  remarkable : 

"  Whydah,  14th  February,  1863.— My  dear  Fathers  and  Friends:— My 
heart  is  witness  that  I  have  not  missed  a  single  opportunity  to  write  to 
you  since  my  departure  from  Europe,  thus  performing  the  most  pleasant 
of  duties.  You  must  have  noticed  that  none  of  my  letters  have  as  yet 
been  dated  from  my  mission  house  at  Dahomey,  having  all  been  sent  from 
various  points  of  the  coast  of  Africa,  which  during  my  lengthy  travels  I 
have  been  obliged  to  visit  a  great  many  times.  During  the  four-and-a- 
half  months  of  my  transit  from  Vigo,  in  Galicia,  to  Whydah,  in  Africa,  I 
have  suffered  greatly,  especially  as  I  had  to  pass  most  of  the  time  on 
board  of  an  ill-conditioned  vessel,  and  upon  the  open  ocean.  In  the 
midst  of  the  many  trials  which  are  unavoidable  in  such  a  voyage  as 
mine,  some  moments  of  peace  and  real  happiness  were  not  denied  to  me; 
but  after  all,  these  troubles  came  upon  me  when  I  was  upon  the  ocean, 
or  in  some  place  where  I  was  completely  a  stranger.  Now,  however, 
when,  thanks  to  the  Lord,  I  find  myself  in  my  own  house  and  in  the  com- 
pany of  my  missionary  brethren ;  now  that  I  am  in  the  midst  of  the 
negroes  of  Dohomey,  for  whose  sakes  I  have  so  often  encountered  danger 
of  death  ;  now  it  is  that  1  write  with  exceeding  gladness,  my  heart  being 
filled  with  the  sweetest  emotions  that  I  have  experienced  in  a  long  time. 

"  It  is  now  about  three  weeks  since  I  disembarked  with  my  com- 
panions, in  Whydah,  after  having  been  driven  hither  and  thither  on  the 
coast  without  being  able  to  arrive  at  our  destination.  It  would  be  need- 
less as  well  as  wasting  time  to  describe  the  satisfaction  which  we  all  felt 
on  arriving  at  the  mission  and  meeting  again  our  African  companions; 
suffice  it  to  say  that  an  embrace  was  our  only  salutation,  for  being  mute 
with  joy,  we  were  unnble  to  utter  a  single  word.  Supposing  that  what 
will  most  interest  you  after  hearing  of  my  health  will  be  the  usages  and 
customs  of  the  country,  I  take  pleasure  in  giving  you  an  account  of  what 
passes  iu  this  uncivilized  city.     In  the  first  place,  our  king  reigns  over  a 


; 


176 

I  have  not  the  courage  to  comment  upon  that  dreadful 
narrative,  for  fear  of  offending  those  who  furnished  it,  after 
knowingly  allowing  the  scenes  announced  in  it  to  take 
place.  Humanity  demanded  some  preventive  measures 
to  avoid  the  slaughter  of  so  many  human  beings;  and 
it  cannot  be   conceived   in    conformity  to  what  order  of 

million  of  subjects,  and  exercises  over  them  the  most  absolute  and  des- 
potic power.  He  sells  them  in  great  numbers,  either  to  slave  traders,  or 
to  the  wealthy  negroes  of  the  country,  who  also  treats  them  like  slaves. 
He  has  a  considerable  number  of  troops,  amongst  which  are  more  than 
six  thousand  women,  armed  with  daggers,  swords  and  clubs,  which  is  his 
most  formidable  batallion,  and  consequently,  employed  as  the  King's 
body  guard.  The  King  eDgages  in  war  twice  a  year,  and  only  yesterday, 
all  the  men  in  the  kingdom  were  snmmoned  to  fight,  without  more  ado, 
against  another  king,  whom  they  will  despoil  of  his  troops  and  wealth, 
and  who,  no  doubt,  will  be  sold  with  the  rest  of  the  prisoners.  When  the 
King  returns  from  the  war  with  five  or  six  thousand  prisoners,  he  retains 
the  majority  to  sell  them,  and  the  rest  he  will  have  beheaded  or  cut  to 
pieces,  and  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  his  idols.  When  the  King  receives  a 
visit  from  some  person  of  rank,  he  orders  all  the  people  to  assemble  in 
some  public  square  and  arrange  themselves  in  the  form  of  an  amphi- 
theatre, and  there,  in  the  presence  of  his  visitor,  he  has  three  or  four 
hundred  prisoners  beheaded ;  this  ceremony  is  repeated  twice  a  year  in 
the  feasts  called  festival  of  the  customs.  The  King's  palace  is  covered  with 
skulls  and  human  heads ;  the  hall  in  which  he  gives  audience  is  paved 
with  human  bones,  and  even  his  throne  is  raised  upon  the  heads  of  the 
four  kings  who  were  his  principal  enemies,  conquered  by  him  in  his  capri- 
cious wars.  When  any  one  wishes  to  speak  to  the  King,  he  receives  him 
seated  upon  his  magical  and  diabolical  throne,  having  the  executioner  at 
his  side  with  the  axe  (dcstral)  on  his  shoulder,  and  the  block  (tallado)  at 
his  feet,  and  at  the  slightest  signal  from  the  King  the  head  of  the  peti- 
tioner is  made  to  fall.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  enumerate  all  the 
cruelties  of  the  King;  nevertheless,  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  one 
with  respect  to  the  women.  The  King  has  six  hundred  wives  whom  he 
has  chosen  from  his  own  kingdom,  or  whom  he  has  reserved  for  himself 
from  the  prisoners  of  war  taken  from  other  kings.  Upon  the  death  of  the 
King  all  these  women  will  take  their  own  lives  by  poison  or  the  dagger, 
believing  that  they  will  resuscitate  and  live  with  the  King  in  the  other 
world.  This  horrible  ceremony  was  performed  a  short  while  since  upon 
the  death  of  the  father  of  the  present  King.  The  name  of  the  late  King 
was  Guezo;  the  present  one  is  Grer6,  and  believes  he  is  a  son  of  the  gods. 
When  the  King  returns  from  the  war  he  will  bring  more  than  two  thou- 
sand women  prisoners  of  war;  he  will  confine  them  in  a  house  which  he 
has  had  constructed  for  the  purpose,  and  all  the  men  who  are  in  want  of 
a  wife  can  go  and  buy  one  of  them  for  the  sum  of  forty  pesetas,  which  is 
the  fixed  price  of  each  one.  But  what  is  most  singular  is,  that  the  King 
gives  them  the  woman  he  chooses,  while  the  poor  fellows  who  buy  them 
are  not  allowed  to  speak  to  or  even  to  see  them  until  they  have  payed 
down  the  price.  However,  they  are  at  liberty  to  kill  them  if  they  do  not 
suit  them,  and  to  buy  others  under  the  same  conditions.  It  often  hap- 
pens that  a  boy  buys  an  old  woman,  or  an  old  man  finds  that  he  has  pur- 
chased a  child,  and  sometimes  a  man's  purchase  turns  out  to  be  his  own 
mother,  daughter  or  sister.  My  countrywomen  can  here  learn  to  be 
grateful  for  the  blessing  of  being  born  in  a  civilized  country,  and  of 


v 


177 

ideas  this  demand  was  delayed  at  that  time,  when  two 
years  afterwards,  and  according  to  the  information  given 
us,  a  short  time  since,  by  all  the  periodicals  of  the  world, 
the  government  of  England,  assuming  the  garbe  of  civi- 
lized humanity,  took  possession,  according  to  law,  of  those 
territories  where  such  abominations  were  perpetrated. 

knowing  the  sweet  name  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  is  entirely  unknown 
to  these  barbarians. 

"In  this  very  city  where  I  reside,  and  about  three  hundred  feet  from 
the  chamber  in  which  I  write,  is  the  house  of  the  gods  of  these  stupid  and 
miserable  savages.  Do  you  wish  to  know  what  kind  of  a  building  this  is, 
and  what  are  their  gods  1  I  will  tell  you,  though  with  sorrow  and  the 
fear  of  horrifying  you.  The  house  is  similar  to  a  sentry  box,  with  two 
doors,  about  nine  feet  high  and  three  feet  square,  built  of  clay  and 
thatched  with  the  leaves  of  the  cocoa  nut  tree  ;  the  gods  who  inhabit  this 
temple  are  serpents  ! 

"I  went  into  this  house  yesterday  and  found  twelve  enormous  serpents 
within,  thicker  than  my  arm,  and  proportionately  long,  and  of  the  color 
of  the  salamander.  They  are  very  tame,  and  go  about  the  city  at  plea- 
sure. The  sight  of  them  caused  me  such  a  loathing  that  I  was  not  able 
to  eat  my  dinner.  These  are  the  principal  gods  of  our  unfortunate 
negroes.     .     .     . 

"In  walking  through  tho  city  I  often  stumble  over  some  of  these  mon- 
sters, which  are  harmless  so  long  as  they  are  unmolested.  If  one  of  them 
should  stray,  after  dark,  about  the  citj7,  and  not  be  able  to  find  its  way 
home,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  return  it  to  its  habitation,  which  they  do 
by  reverently  carrying  it  in  a  basket  or  even  in  the  hands,  at  a  slow  and 
majestic  pace,  to  the  palace  from  which  it  had  inadvertently  strayed. 
This  palace  hut  is  called  the  House  of'  the  Serpents.  I  must  add  that 
whenever  any  of  the  negroes  of  Whydah  meet  with  any  of  these  serpents 
about  the  streets,  they  bow  down  or  even  prostrate  themselves  at  full 
length  and  cover  their  heads  with  dust,  while  the  disgusting  reptile  crawls 
past  in  triumph. 

"  This  is  not  the  only  spectacle  which  we  are  obliged  to  witness  every 
time  that  we  have  to  walk  through  the  city,  from  curiosity  or  necessity, 
for  whenever  we  go  out  we  can  hardly  take  a  step  without  coming  in  con- 
tact with  some  of  the  stupid  gods  of  Dahomey,  which,  in  order  to  avoid 
giving  them  the  appellation  of  gods,  I  will  henceforth  call  fetiches,  that 
being  the  name  given  to  them  by  the  hapless  people  of  Dahomey,  while 
the  priests  of  the  country  are  called  fetishers.  Well,  as  I  said, 
whenever  we  walk  out,  we  cannot  take  a  step  without  encountering  a 
number  of  fetiches  of  a  thousand  different  kinds  and  forms.  You  will  be 
astonished  when  I  tell  you  that,  besides  the  serpents,  which  are  the  great 
fetiches,  there  are  any  quantity  of  other  lesser  ones,  such  as  the  crocodile, 
the  red  owl,  the  bat,  the  ant,  which  are  all  fetiches,  as  are  also  some  par- 
ticular kinds  of  trees  unknown  in  Europe,  and  small  mounds  of  clay,  of  a 
pyramidal  form,  on  the  top  of  which  the  negroes  place  small  gourds  full 
of  palm  oil,  docorating  the  other  parts  with  the  feathers  of  several  kinds 
of  birds  of  prey,  which  abound  in  Whydah.  I  confess,  I  rarely  go  out 
for  a  walk,  for  it  is  really  disgusting  to  go  about  these  streets,  where 
your  nostrils  are  continually  assailed  by  the  stench  arising  from  innumer- 
able puddles,  where  all  the  refuse  of  the  city  is  thrown,  emitting  a  fetid 
miasma,  which,  together  with  the  equatorial  sun  of  Whydah,  would  be 
enough  to  kill  any  one  who  should  often  venture  into  it.     Everything  in 


J 


178 

s 

Now,  in  the  interval  between  the  two  opposite  circum- 
stances, viz.:  the  toleration  with  which  the  slaughter 
was  allowed,  (in  accordance  without  doubt  of  the  princi- 
ple of  non-intervention  applied  to  the  savages),  and  the 
violence  afterwards  exercised  when  there  was  no  longer 
any  fear  of  a  similar  occurrence,  another  Spanish  period- 

these  streets  excites  loathing  and  abhorrence.  More  than  twenty-four 
thousand  negroes  go  about  the  city  entirely  naked,  or  with  a  small  piece 
of  cloth  about  half  the  size  of  a  pocket  handkerchief  as  their  only 
covering.  An  infinite  number  of  children  of  both  sexes  spring  up  like 
ants  in  every  direction,  and  go  about  entirely  naked,  until  the  age  of 
twelve  and  fourteen.  This  is  a  spectacle  which  strikes  any  one  with 
amazement  at  first,  but  you  soon  get  used  to  it,  and  seek  for  some  new 
absurdities,  which  are  never  wanting  in  this  country;  in  fact,  I  proceed 
on  my  way  through  the  streets,  and  here  I  see  a  simple  little  tree,  well 
taken  care  of  and  enclosed  in  a  little  house  made  of  the  trunks  of  trees. 
I  ask  what  is  the  meaning  of  this,  and  am  told  that  it  is  a  god.  I  go  on 
and  see  thousands  of  enormous  and  hideous  bats,  which  are  flying  around 
a  tree,  and  which  confound  and  deafen  me  with  their  diabolical  screams. 
I  ask  what  that  is,  and  receive  for  answer  that  they  are  gods.  On  my 
right  hand  there  is  a  small  mound  of  earth,  sprinkled  with  palm  oil,  de- 
corated with  feathers  and  a  number  of  little  plates  full  of  the  blood  of 
chickens  and  many  other  absurd  and  disgusting  ingredients  ;  on  my  left 
hand  I  see  a  hen  nailed  to  the  door  of  a  hut  by  the  wings  or  by  the  legs, 
the  blood  flowing  from  nostrils,  bill,  eyes  and  ears,  which  has  been  suffer- 
ing this  torture  for  three  days.  I  am  on  the  point  of  asking  what  this 
signifies,  but  abstain  from  doing  so,  knowing  well  what  the  answer  will 
be — a  sacrifice  offered  to  the  gods,  to  obtain  something  or  other,  such  as 
the  death  of  such  a  one,  or  the  blindness  of  another  one,  &c.  I 
wish  to  proceed,  but  cannot;  I  am  no  longer  able  to  resist  the  effect  of 
these  stupid,  disgusting  and  heartrending  spectacles.  I  hardly  dare  to 
say  more,  or  to  relate  to  you  any  more  of  the  cruelties  and  filthiness  of 
the  country.  I  fear  I  have  already  wearied  you;  nevertheless,  I  hare 
still  much  more  to  tell,  and  that  of  a  more  horrible  nature  than  anything 
I  have  yet  related. 

"  To  divert  your  thoughts,  I  will  relate  an  anecdote.  You  have  already 
heard  me  say  that  visits  are  not  made  here,  as  in  Europe,  in  person  or 
by  means  of  visiting  cards ;  persons  of  high  rank  pay  their  visits  or  carry 
on  a  conversation  with  their  canes  or  staffs.  Whenever  the  governor  has 
anything  to  say  to  us,  he  sends  his  servant  who  carries  his  cane  with  the 
greatest  respect ;  on  his  arriving  at  our  house,  one  of  us  goes  out  immedi- 
ately to  meet  him  ;  the  servant,  after  making  a  profound  reverence,,  pre- 
sents the  staff,  which  we  respectfully  take  in  our  hands — then,  while 
we  both  bow  our  heads  down,  the  servant  delivers  the  message  with  which 
he  has  been  chai'ged  by  his  master,  we  return  him  the  staff,  and  after 
making  another  reverence  to  the  very  ground,  the  servant  retires.  The 
staff  represents  the  owner,  and  each  person  has  his.  I  have  one  in 
the  shape  of  a  salamander.  Well,  one  day  the  servant  of  Zerogan,  the  gov- 
ernor, appeared,  and  after  the  customary  ceremonies,  he  presented 
the  staff  to  us  and  warned  us  on  the  part  of  Zerogan  not  to  go  out  of  k,he 
house  during  the  following  thirty  nights,  if  we  did  not  wish  to  expose  our- 
salves  to  the  insults  of  the  people.  In  fact,  the  governor  had  good  reason 
to  warn  us,  as  that  very  night  such  an  awful  uproar  commenced  through- 
out the  city  that  we,  although  in  the  house,  could  not  bat  treinhle  at  the 


v 


179 

ical,   La  Correspondencia,   copied  from  an    English  pa- 
per the  following  information: 

"The  members  of  the  London  African  Society  had  an 
interview,  some  time  since,  with  Lord  Palmerston,  to 
present  a  petition  asking  for  a  subsidy  for  the  king  of 
Dahomey,  who  has  abolished  the  hunting  of  slaves.  The 


sound  of  their  infernal  ceremonies.  The  cause  of  this  excitement  was  tha 
a  child  had  just  been  born  who  had  the  misfortune  to  come  into  the  world 
with  teeth,  and  in  consequence  was  to  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  god 
of  the  toothed  ones.  The  whole  city  was  assembled  en  masse  before  the 
house  of  the  victim,  with  a  thousand  musical  instruments  of  the  most  bar- 
barous and  ridiculous  kinds  which  can  be  imagined.  They  commenced 
the  ceremony  by  singing  the  most  diabolical  songs,  after  which  they  be- 
came intoxicated  with  the  brandy  which  they  make  themselves,  and  then 
the  feticher  or  priest  took  the  child,  and  heading  this  immense  crowd,  di- 
rected his  steps  towards  a  lake  which  is  about  half  a  league  from  the  city  ; 
all  followed,  and,  leaping,  yelling,  and  twisting  their  bodies  into  the  most 
dreadful  contortions,  as  though  they  were  possessed,  they  arrived  at  the 
lake  in  about  three  hours  and  a  half,  and  here  all  the  horrors  of  their  cere- 
monies were  again  renewed  with  such  fiendish  joy  that  it  made  our  hair 
stand  on  end,  though  we  were  at  a  distance  of  half  a  league  from  them. 
At  last,  after  having  repeatedly  stabbed  the  child,  they  threw  it  into  the 
lake  of  crocodiles,  to  which  the  victim  belonged,  having  been  born  with 
teeth.  The  infant  was  drowned  after  its  sufferings  were  prolonged  as  long 
as  possible,  and  then  the  crowd  retired,  yelling  and  dancing  like  a  band 
of  infernal  imps,  which  they  kept  up  every  night  for  a  whole  month. 

"I  have  visited  the  whole  coast  of  Africa,  and  can  assure  you  that 
1  never  witnessed  such  barbarous  customs  nor  such  fiendish  usages  in  any 
other  place.  It  is  perfectly  horrible!  I  might  speak  of  many  other 
cruelties  witnessed  by  lis,  but  I  dare  not,  nor  do  I  feel  myself  equal  to  the 
task.  I  am  going  to  breakfast,  as  I  hear  the  bell  summoning  me,  and 
perhaps,  afterwards  I  may  have  the  courage  to  relate  things  which 
you  have  never  read  or  heard  of. 

"  I  have  breakfasted,  and  now  I  shall  proceed.  Besides  all  I  have  told 
you,  we  usually  find  a  gourd  full  of  palm  oil  and  blood,  whenever  four 
roads  cross  each  other ;  when  three  only  cross,  there  is  a  mat  with  a  dy- 
ing hen  upon  it  ;  when  only  two  roads  cross,  the  negroes  place  some  other 
filthy  thing  upon  it,  as  for  example,  a  small  mound  of  mud  covered  with 
feathers,  which  they  take  good  care  to  sprinkle  with  blood  every  day,  and 
all  this  is  done  by  the  counsel  of  their  oracles  to  obtain  some  revenge, 
or  the  misfortuneof  a  neighbor,  and  also  to  give  thanks  to  their  gods  for 
the  blessings  they  think  they  have  received. 

"  This  is  not  all,  and  it  seems  as  nothing  to  me  compared  to  the  other 
barbarities  which  frequently  happen  in  this  country,  governed  by  a  tyrant 
who  is  surely  inspired  by  Satan  himself. 

"  One  of  our  brethren  belonging  to  this  Mission,  having  gone  on  a  visit 
to  the  capital  some  months  since,  spent  some  three  months  there,  at 
the  expiration  of  which  he  returned  in  very  ill  health,  not  so  much  on  ac- 
count of  the  inconveniences  sufi'ered  in  travelling  by  land,  without  roads 
or  paths  whatever,  without  a  horse  or  any  kind  of  carriage,  being  always 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  negroes  of  the  country,  in  a  species  of  lit- 
ter called  hamaquc,  or  palanquin,  ofwvhich  I  intend  to  speak  hereafter,  if  I 
do  not  forget  to  do  so,  as  from  the  filthy  and  barbarous  state  of  the 
country. 


180 

authors  of  this  petition  said  that,  to  obtain  this  subsidy 
without  drawing  from  the  treasury,  the  reduction  of  the 
squadron  on  the  coasts  of  Africa  would  suffice.  They 
also  propose  to  send  a  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the 
king  of  Dahomey." 

From  which  facts  some  captious  persons  have  suspect- 

"  Our*  brother  in  question,  being  obliged  to  walk  out  every  day,  was 
compelled  to  witness  the  most  horrible  spectacles  ;  oftentimes,  on  passing 
in  the  streets,  he  would  find  it  closed  up  by  heaps  of  hundreds  of  human 
heads ;  at  other  times  he  would  go  to  the  public  square,  and  on  a  long 
rope,  or  on  the  tops  and  branches  of  trees,  he  would  find  dozens  of  men 
hung  by  the  neck,  by  the  arm,  or  by  the  feet,  in  the  most  horrible  torture, 
bleeding  from  the  mouth,  nose,  ears  and  eyes,  some  dead,  others  expiring, 
and  others  recently  hung ;  while  they  had  the  consolation  of  seeing  them- 
selves surrounded  by  many  thousands  of  men,  (or  rather  ferocious  beasts,) 
who  were  mocking  and  laughing  at  them.  Another  day  he  was  invited  by 
the  king  to  witness  the  bravery  of  his  amazons  in  a  sham  fight.  He  was 
conducted  to  an  immense  field,  surrounded  by  three  or  four  high  and  mas- 
sive walls,  formed  of  branches  of  trees  covered  with  enormous  and  very 
sharp  thorns;  all  the  female  warriors  of  the,  king,  numbering  six  or  seven 
thousand,  ranged  themselves  in  battle  array,  and  at  a  simple  sign  from 
the  king  they  charged  on  the  wall  and  scaled  this  formidable  barrier, 
before  which,  perhaps,  our  bravest  European  troops  would  recoil,  if  in- 
stead of  having  a  dress  of  heavy  cloth  and  leather,  &c,  they  were  in  a 
state  of  nudity,  as  are  our  valorous  female  warriors  of  Dahomey.  They 
leaped  over  the  barrier,  I  repeat,  and  the  blood  streamed  from  all  parts  of 
their  bodies.  I  now  ask:  Why  does  the  barbarous  king  make  them  per- 
form such  an  abominable  feat  1  Because  he  wishes  to  please  our  compan- 
ions of  the  Mission.  Why  do  these  inimitable  female  warriors  labor  so 
willingly  and  with  such  intrepidity  1  To  please  the  king.  Does  this  hap- 
pen many  times  during  the  year  7  As  many  times  as  the  king  receives  a 
visit* from  a  white  man,  besides  the  three  days  in  which  all  these  sacrifices 
take  place  every  year,  to  solemnize  the  feasts  of  the  customs ;  it  is  no 
uncommon  occurrence  to  see  six,  twelve,  or  twenty  negroes  drowned  by 
order  of  the  king,  and  the  decapitation  of  a  man  who  displeases  the  king 
is  a  thing  seen  every  day. 

"  At  the  distance  of  three  hundred  paces  from  our  house  we  have* the 
magnificent  Temple  of  the  Bats.  It  consists  of  eight  trees  of  an  extraor- 
dinary height  and  luxuriant  foliage,  upon  whose  branches  rest  millions  of 
these  animals,  which  are  as  large  as  the  young  pigeons  of  our  country,  and 
who,  with  the  tremendous  battles  which  they  have  among  themselves  and 
the  infernal  cry  which  said  battles  produce,  annoy  and  distract  any  one 
who  is  not  accustomed  to  such  a  din. 

"  This  is  also  the  case  with  the  Crow  gods,  which  they  have  by  the  mil- 
lion. The  money  of  this  country  is  a  species  of  small  sea  shell,  one  thou- 
sand of  which  make  one  hard  dollar ;  the  people  require  no  other  money  ; 
each  shell  is  called  a  busa,  and  a  shilling  is  cailed  a  galina.  This  very 
day  I  have  to  pay  the  governor  of  the  city  the  duty  for  shipping  my  little 
negroes,  which  duty  amounts  to  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  busas, 
which  have  to  be  counted  one  by  ope— who  can  have  the  patience  to  do 
this  1  I  now  have  twelve  women  counting  them,  with  two  persons  of  the 
Mission  watching  them. 

"  I  shall  say  something  respecting  certain  customs  of  the  negroes  ;  but 
can  only  touch  lightly  on  the  subject,  as  I  am  very  tired  and  in  great 
haste: 


181 

ed  that  the  fertility  and  spontaneous  vegetation  of  the 
country  of  Dahomey  had  awakened  in  England,  for  some 
time  back,  the  idea  of  acting  as  it  has  done;  that  is,  to 
take  forcible  possession  of  it;  and,  in  order  to  justify 
such  a  proceeding  before  other  nations,  nothing  could  be 
better  than,  coolly,  to  allow  those  awful  butcheries  to  be 

11  Revenge  of  the  Negroes  of  Gabon. — Peter  offends  Paul,  robs  him,  for  ex- 
ample, of  a  wife.  Paul  wishes  to  revenge  himself  on  Peter,  but  if  Peter  is 
stronger  than  Paul,  Paul  goes  out  and  robs  or  kills  a  child  or  a  wife  of 
Antonio,  who  is  stronger  than  Peter,  and  then  Antonio  tears  out  the  eyes 
of  Peter  or  buries  him  alive,  and  Paul  and  Antonio  thereafter  remain  at 
peace  with  each  other.  I  do  not  know  if  a  single  reading  will  suffice  to 
make  this  understood. 

"  Funerals. — When  a  negro  dies  he  is  buried  with  all  he  has  in  his  house ; 
one  has  recently  died  who  was  buried  with  fifty  high-crowned  hats     .     . 

"Weddings. — Each  negro  has  as  many  wives  as  he  can  support,  and 
when  he  dies,  his  sons  are  married  to  the  wives  of  their  fathers. 

"  The.  man  does  nothing,  the  wife  only  works,  and  she  alone  has  the 
privilege  of  carrying  the  parcels  and  the  loads. 

"  Births. — When  a  male  or  female  child  is  born  with  any  defect,  it  is 
immediately  killed  by  the  parents. 

"Marriage  Contracts. — When  a  negro  wishes  to  marry,  he  is  obliged  to 
supply  the  bride  with  hog's  lard  to  dress  her  hair,  and  besides  this,  gives 
her  a  cat  before  they  get  married.     What  do  you  think  of  that  1 

"If  I  were  not  in  such  haste,  I  could  relate  a  great  deal  more,  but  as  I 
suppose  you  are  already  tired,  (and  with  reason),  I  will  conclude  with  an 
anecdote  which,  though  it  has  its  serious  side,  has  also  something  amusing, 
so  here  you  have  it :  One  day  I  asked  a  negro  if  he  believed  in  the  Son  of 
God.  He  answered  me  that  he  did,  and  added,  that  all  the  negroes  be- 
lieved it  also.  Whyl  I  asked  him;  and  the  good  man  held  forth  in  the 
following  jargon  :  '  Two  negroes,  named  Baynagn  and  Ndulnaca,  went  on  a 
journey ;  which  having  been  prolonged  more  than  they  had  anticipated, 
their  provisions  failed  them,  hunger  followed,  causing  the  companions  to 
fight,  when  one  of  them  tore  the  eyes  out  of  the  other ,  upon  this  the 
Son  of  God,  who  was  mending  his  drawers  in  Pleaven,  by  chance  looked 
downwards,  and  by  so  doing  pricked  his  finger  with  the  needle,  he  in  a 
moment  took  out  of  his  pocket  a  small  pot  of  onguent,  when  seeing  the 
negro  who  had  just  lost  his  eyes,  and  moved  with  compassion,  he  threw 
him  down  the  whole  pot  of  onguent,  with  which  the  negroes  now-a-days 
cure  all  diseases  without  any  diminution  of  the  onguent.' 

"  Another  :  At  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  our  house,  it  happened  that 
a  woman  was  eating  a  fish  in  the  presence  of  her  slaves  ;  it  so  happened 
that  a  bone  stuck  in  the  old  woman's  throat;  she  laid  the  blame  on  her 
slave,  saying  that  he  had  bewitched  the  fish,  in  consequence  thereof,  she 
tied  him  up  and  confined  him  in  a  hovel  leaving  him  to  starve  to  death. 
What  do  you  think  of  that  ? 

"  Still  another  :  While  I  was  in  Gabon,  it  happened  that  a  missionary  fa- 
ther having  gone  to  bathe  at  a  very  short  distance  from  the  place  where  I 
also  was  bathing  in  the  sea,  a  negro  passed  near  him,  and  as  he  had  only 
his  head  out  of  the  water  as  he  was  swimming,  the  nesro  imagined  that  it 
was  a  monstrous  fish  which  they  call  bugari,  he  therefore  set  up  a  cry 
that  more  people  might  come,  and  cried  out  incessantly  in  a  very  loud 
voice .  Yo-6-go-lo,  go-go,  go-go,  which  means — Come,  a  monster,  come,  come, 
On  hearing  this  all  the  people  ©f  the  neighboring  tribe  came  ;   some  with 


J 


182 

committed,  and,  afterwards,  give  them    publicity   in  all 
the  languages  in  the  world. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  result  which,  with  evident  con- 
tradiction, has  followed  the  suppression  of  the  redemp- 
tion of  prisoners  on  the  African  coast,  has  been  the  re- 
turn of  the  negroes  to  the  state  of  barbarism  and  fero- 
city which  characterized  that  race  from  centuries  back. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  are  the  only  data 
on  which  I  can  base  my  assertions,  for  I  have  selected 
them  from  among  many  others  equally  important,  that 
they  may  serve  as  specimens  of  the  spirit  which  charac- 
terizes them  all. 

It  has  then,  so  far,  been  unquestionably  demonstrated 
that  the  prohibition  of  the  redemption  of  negroes  has 
served  only  to  perpetuate  slavery,  and  to  aggravate  it  in 
such  places  where  the  treaties  have  been  neutralized  by 
the  reproduction  of  slaves  for  the  market,  and  that  it 
has  also  made  the  condition  of  African  prisoners  much 
worse  wherever  said  treaties  made  by  England  with  the 
slave  holding  nations  have  by  chance  produced  their  effects 
on  the  African  coast.  Having  demonstrated  these  facts, 
let  us  proceed  to  consider  what  has  happened  in  the  colo- 
nies. 

This  new  point  of  investigation  has  two  phases,  viz. : 
that  of  the  colonies  in  which  the  prohibition  of  the  re- 
demption was  the  preamble  to  abolish  slavery,  and  that  of 
the  other  countries  where  slavery  was  confirmed  with  new 
ordinances,  to  avoid  the  disastrous  results  of  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  redemption. 


clubs,  others  with  irons,  with  guns,  or  with  bows,  &c.,  &c.  ;  but,  in  the 
meantime,  while  the  negro  who  had  given  the  alarm  had  gone  to  call  the 
rest  of  the  people,  the  missionary  came  out  of  the  water  and  put  on  his 
cassock,  and  was  walking  quietly  on  the  beach,  the  people  came  out  with 
tremendous  yells,  and  the  missionary,  seeing  that  they  were  all  looking  to- 
wards the  place  where  he  had  been  bathing,  and  that  it  was  him  who  they 
sought,  went  towards  them  and  told  them  smiling  :  'It  is  I,  it  is  I ;'  and 
the  astonished  negroes  went  away  saying,  '  Mintsse,  minisse,'  that  is,  the 
Minister,  the  minister. 

"  As  I  am  very  much  occupied,  and  almost  every  day  have  an  attack  of 
fever,  I  cannot,  without  much  trouble,  write  many  letters,  I  therefore  pray 
my  Reverend  Fathers  to  show  this  letter  to  my  friends  of  Vich,  Tarrasa, 
Viladran,  S.  Felio,  Garriga,  &c,  &c.  Do  not  write  to  me  until  further 
notice,  for  this  very  day,  within  six  hours,  I  embark  for  Europe,  but  I  do 
not  know  where  I  shall  stop,  whether  at  Fernando  Po,  TeneriiFe,  or 
Paris. 

"  Brrtolomeo  M.  Sarra,  Missionary:" 


V 


183 

The  first  of  these  phases  ougnt  to  be  subdivided  into 
two  distinct  cases,  viz:  that  of  those  colonies  in  which 
slaveowners  were  deprived  of  their  absolute  authority  and 
rendered  dependent  on  the  free  labor  of  the  negroes,  and 
that  of  those  other  regions  in  which  the  slaves  were  sud- 
denly transformed  into  masters,  through  a  violent  and  san- 
guinary metamorphosis. 

Leaving  aside  the  second  phase,  to  be  analyzed  after- 
wards, we  will  consider  the  two  points  of  the  first,  sepa- 
rately. 

I  have  often  heard,  and  I  regret  that  I  have  not  at  hand 
the  proofs  which  could  demonstrate  it  incontrovertibly. 
that  Jamaica,  before  the  abolition  of  slavery,  had  about 
twenty  thousand  inhabitants;  and  I  know  also,  from  re- 
peated verbal  information,  that  said  population  has  dege- 
nerated to  such  an  extent,  since  the  freedom  of  the  negroes, 
that  at  present  it  has  hardly  a  sixth  part  of  that  number. 

If  any  mistake  be  found  in  the  numbers  given,  let  it  be 
considered  unintentional;  since  the  rapid  and  extraordi- 
nary decrease  of  the  population  of  that  Island  is  so  true 
that  no  one  would  dare  to  deny  it,  being  evident  to  all  the 
world. 

The  same  can  he  said  of  all  the  other  English  posses- 
sions in  this  part  of  the  Ocean,  which  have  degenerated 
more  or  less,  according  to  the  relative  importance  of  each; 
and  if  the  same  general  decrease  cannot  be  shown  in  the 
French  colonies,  although  the  decrease  has  evidently  been 
considerable  in  these  also,  it  is  because  the  time  has  not 
yet  arrived  for  such  disastrous  results. 

In  either  of  these  territories  where  the  negroes  have  ob- 
tained their  emancipation  from  forced  labor,  being  left  to 
their  will  to  work  or  not,  it  may  be  that  the  life  of  these 
miserable  creatures  has  been  bettered  in  indolence,  even  if 
they  are  compelled  to  resort  to  public  charity  to  be  pre- 
served from  perishing  from  hunger;  but  it  can  also  be  as- 
serted that  their  condition  has  become  worse  in  every  res- 
pect, for,  from  having  been  orderly  and  civilized,  its  pre- 
sent tendencies  are  towards  the  isolation  of  each  individual 
and  the  abandonment  of  all  social  trammels  and  other  re- 
quirements of  civilization. 

We  could  easily  give  any  number  of  data  to  prove  the 
disastrous  results  of  the  absolute  freedom  bestowed  upon 
the  negroes  in  the  New  World,  and  some  have  already  been 


; 


184 

given  in  the  chapter  that  treats  of  the  respective  condition 
of  the  free  negroes  and  slaves  in  said  colonies  But  as,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  abolitionists,  the  greatest  advantage, 
not  only  to  individuals,  but  to  the  country,  results  from 
the  greater  amount  of  freedom  and  independence,  I  believe 
that  the  best  answer  to  this  supposition  will  be  a  detailed 
and  careful  comparison  on  this  matter  in  the  republic  of 
Hayti.  For  this  purpose,  that  I  may  not  be  suspected  of 
partiality,  I  shall  make  use  of  a  work  which  was  written 
on  abolitionist  principles,  in  an  excellent  article  from  El 
Siglo,  an  enlightened  newspaper  published  in.Havanna. 

All  the  world  is  aware  that  the  island  known  by  the 
name  of  Hayti  and  also  by  that  of  Santo  Domingo,  and 
sometimes  as  La  Espanola,  is  divided  into  two  parts:  the 
Western  section,  or  Hayti  proper,  and  what  was  until  very 
recently  the  republic  of  Santo  Domingo.  It  ranks  next  to 
Cuba  in  sine,  and  is  considered  the  most  fertile  of  the  West 
Indian  Islands.  The  whole  length  of  the  island  is  four 
hundred  and  six  mites,  and  its  greatest  breadth  is  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty- three.  Twenty-seven  thousand  six  hundred 
and  ninety  square  miles  have  been  measured,  of  which  ten 
thousand  and  ninety-one  belong  to  Hayti,  and  the  rest  to 
the  Dominican  section. 

It.  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain  with  any  degree  of  cer- 
tainty the  exact  population  of  Hayti,  as  no  definite  sta- 
tistics exist;  but  it  is  calculated  to  be  about  six  hun- 
dred thousand.  The  climate,  the  natural  productions  and 
the  fertility  of  the  land  cannot  be  surpassed  in  any  other 
country  in  the  world.  Gold,  silver,  platina,  copper,  iron, 
quicksilver,  tin,  sulphur,  saltpetre,  jasper,  marble,  etc.,  are 
among  its  mineral  productions.  The  gold  mines  have  been 
abandoned  for  some  time  .past,  as  well  as  all  occupa- 
tions requiring  laborious  industry.  The  climate  is  warm, 
but  the  sea  breezes  make  it  generally  agreable,  even 
during  the  heat  of  summer  time.  The  vegetation  is  un- 
surpassably  rich  and  exhuberant. 

"  It  is  extremely  difficult,"  says  a  traveller,  "  to  give 
any  adequate  idea  of  the  magnificent  beauty  of  the  scene- 
ry of  this  island  to  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the 
richeness  and  variety  of  the  tropical  landscapes.  The 
island  rises  up  in  the  midst  of  a  sea  of  crystal,  clothed 
with  a  vegetation  of  unsurpassed  luxuriance  and  splend- 
or of  every  variety,   from  the  stately  and  graceful  palm- 


v 


185 

tree  and  the  majestic  mahogany,  to  the  brillant  flowers 
which  seem  to  have  stolen  their  colors,  from  the  sun, 
which  gives  them  life.  Birds  of  plumage  as  varied  and 
beautiful  as  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  dart  about  the 
dark  green  foliage  of  the  groves;  and  scarlet  tinted  flam- 
ingos adorn  the  shores.  Fishes  of  many  kinds  and  varied 
colors  glide  in  the  water,  which  is  so  transparent  and  pure 
that  they  can  easily  be  distinguished  at  the  depth  of  sev- 
eral fathoms. 

"  Turn  your  eyes  wherever  you  will,  on  the  sea  or  on 
land,  and  the  most  brillant  colors  will  always  be  reflected. 
Nature,  here,  appears  like  a  most  beautiful  queen  adorned 
for  a  festival. 

"  In  the  island  of  Santo  Domingo  are  found,  combined 
with  the  tropical  beauties,  some  of  the  loveliest  landscapes 
in  the  world.  The  broad  and  fertile  plains  are  covered 
with  groves  of  orange  and  lime-trees  and  the  coifee  plant; 
spiral  columns  of  smoke  indicate  the  site  of  some  invisi- 
ble habitation;  clusters  of  mango-trees,  apparently  grow- 
ing in  the  waters,  rise  up  gradually  into  sight,  giving  warn- 
ing of  some  spot  dangerous  to  navigation.  There  are  no 
steep  promontories  as  on  our  northern  coasts:  all  the  an- 
gles are  delicatly  finished  off ;  all  the  outlines  of  the  scene- 
ry are  undulating  and  graceful." 

To  the  beauty,  so  artistically  delineated  in  the  passages 
just  copied,  are  added  all  the  productions  that  could  pos- 
sibly be  wished  for.  The  mountains  are  covered  with  pine 
woods* enormous  mahoganies,  fustic,  oak,  acana,  guiacum, 
quebrahacha,  cinnamon,  capa,  laurel,  spiraea,  cavina,  cedar, 
ebony,  sabine,  carey,  and  a  thousand  other  precious  woods. 
All  the  tropical  fruits  grow  there  spontaneously  and  in 
great  abundance,  including  plantains,  yams,  corn,  maize, 
pine-apples,  melons,  grapes,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  agricultural 
products:  coffee,  cocao,  sugar,  indigo,  cotton  and  tobacco. 

It  is  a  crime  to  permit. the  inexhaustible  resources  of  a 
country  so  visibly  blessed  by  its  creator,  to  be  left  uncared 
for,  without  an  effort  to  give  them  the  developpement  of 
which  they  are  susceptible.  In  1790,  Hayti  had  reached  a 
high  state  of  prosperity,  and  was  a  colony  the  population 
of  which  amounted  to  five  hundred  thousand,  of  which 
thiriy-eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty  were  white, 
four  hundred  and  twenty-three  thousand  two  hundred  and 
seventy  were  colored  slaves,  and  twenty-eight  thousand 


j 


186 

three  hundred  and  seventy  were  free  negroes.  In  said  year 
the  French  revolution  broke  out;  and  in  1793  the  reforms 
were  decreed,  which,  in  the  name  of  fraternity,  have  led  to 
the  results  which  the  island  of  Hayti  now  presents  to  the 
world  after  a  lapse  of  seventy  years. 

"  If  the  present  inhabitants  of  that  island  had  any  ca- 
pacity to  govern  themselves,"  says,  with  sufficient  funda- 
tion  the  periodical  of  Havanna  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  "had  they  any  inherent  or  natural  ability,  or  ener- 
gy, they  undoubtedly  would  have  shown  it  during  all  that 
time.  In  a  country  whose  natural  resources  and  fertility 
cannot  be  doubted,  this  result  would  have  been  certain/' 

In  cultivation,  the  island  had  risen  to  as  high  a  rank 
and  reached  to  as  great  mercantile  prosperity  as  any  coun- 
try among  those  most  favored  by  nature  and  art.  It  was 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  its  new  masters  as  a  terrestial 
paradise  already  cultivated;  and  all  they  had  to  do  was  to 
preserve  it  in  the  same  state,,  and  follow  in  the  path  of 
prosperity  inaugurated  under  such  good  auspices.  But 
some  statistical  data  will  prove  more  clearly  than  words 
how  much  the  island  has  retrograded,  and  how  fallacious 
were  all  the  hopes  that  had  been  entertained  respecting 
the  industry  of  those  inhabitants  when  left  to  their  own 
resources. 

In  1790  the  value  of  the  exports  from  Hayti  amounted 
to  twenty-seven  million  eight  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
thousand  Spanish  dollars,  the  principal  products  being  as 
follows: 

Sugar,  163,405,220  lbs.;  coffee,  68,151,180  lbs.;  cotton, 
6,286,126  lbs.;  indigo,  930,016  lbs. 

In  1826,  nearly  thirty  years  after  the  emancipation,  these 
figures  had  dwindled  down  thus:  sugar,  32,864  lbs.;  coffee, 
32,189,784  lbs.;  cotton,  504,516  lbs.,  and  indigo,  none. 

Sugar  is  no  longer  exported,  coffee  and  lagwood  being 
the  articles  of  most  importance.  The  sugar  cane  is  gather- 
ed from  the  old  plantations  that  have  been  abandoned  by 
the  Europeans,  or  from  the  mountains;  and  of  the  two  ar- 
ticles that  are  still  exported,  one  grows  wild,  and  the  other 
has  only  to  be  cut  and  carried  to  the  marked,  as  its  growth 
is  spontaneous. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  all  cultivation  has  disappeared, 
and  that  the  only  profitable  articles  are  those  which  grow 
spontaneously  and  independent  of  any  culture. 


v 


187 

In  1849,  the  last  certain  date  that  the  statistics  furnish 
us  with,  and  nearly  sixty  years  after  the  emancipation,  the 
exportation  of  the  above  mentioned  articles  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

Sugar,  none;  coffee,  30,608,343  lbs.;  cotton,  504,516 lbs.; 
and  indigo,  none. (1) 

It  is  impossible  to  say  exactly  what  the  insignificant  ex- 
portations  from  Hayti  amount  to  at  present.  The  chan- 
cellor of  the  exchequer  of  that  country,  in  a  speech  made 
by  him  some  months  ago,  in  the  Senate,  calculated  them 
to  amount  to  2,573,000  Spanish  dollars;  and  it  is  to  be 
supposed,  not  without  fundation,  from  what  has  some- 
times happened,  that  this  figure  is  double  the  real  value  of 
the  articles  exported. 

A  modern  traveller  says  that  he  was  not  able  to  find 
any  commercial  statistics' in  Hayti ;(2)  and  therefore  the  figu- 
res given  by  the  minister  are  merely  conjectural. 

But,  even  admitting  them  to  be  correct,  what  a  sad 
spectacle  does  it  not  present  of  the  commercial  ruin  of  that 
country!  In  1790  the  exportations  amounted  to  about 
twenty-eight  millions  of  dollars,  and  now  the  most  exage- 
rated  official  manifestations  hardly  make  them  exceed  two 
millions  and  a  half ! 

The  same  author  whom  we  have  quoted,  a  radical  abo- 
litionist, sent  by  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  of  Lon- 
don, to  the  colonies,  with  a  philanthropic  purpose  that 
we  can  guess  at,  says  further  on:  "  This  country  has  made 
no  progress  whatever  since  the  emancipation.  The  inhab- 
itants partially  subsist  on  the. production  of  the  wild  cof- 
fee plant,  the  remains  of  the  agriculture  in  the  time  of  the 
French.  Properly  speaking,  there  are  no  plantations  here 
like  those  of  the  English  in  Jamaica,  or  of  the  Spaniards 
in  Cuba.  Hayti  is  the  most  beautiful  and  most  fertile  of 
the  West  India  Islands.  It  has  more  mountains  than 
Cuba  and  is  more  extensive  than  Jamaica.  In  no  other 
place  can  the  coffee  plant  be  produced  to  such  perfection 
as  it  is  here,  as  it  specially  requires  a  mountanous  soil; 
but  the  indolence  of  the  negroes  has  been  the  ruin  of  these 
plantations,  that  were  at  one  time  so  flourishing.  They 
only  gather  the  coffee  from  the  wild  plant;  the  cultivation 


fl)   Commercial  Relations  of  the  United  States,  vol.  I,  p.  561. 

(2)  Underhill,  The  West  Indies;  their  moral  and  social  condition. 


J 


188 

of  the  sugar  cane  has  been  entirely  abandoned,  and  the 
island  that  once  provided  Europe  with  half  of  what  it  con- 
sumed of  this  article,  is  now  obliged  to  provide  its  neces- 
sary wants  in  Jamaica  and  the  United  States." 

Full  of  the  abolitionist  spirit  which  brought  him  to  the 
New  World,  the  aforementioned  author  sometimes  at- 
tempts to  lessen  the  fact  of  the  decay  of  the  republic  of 
Hayti  in  favor  of  the  negroes  ;  but  as  the  real  state  of  the 
country  cannot  but  become  evident,  from  his  truthful 
statements,  let  us  hear  what  he  says  in  describing  his  im- 
pressions in  his  travels  to  Port-au-Prince : 

"  We  passed,"  he  says,  "  through  a  number  of  deserted 
plantations,  on  which  the  buildings  were  in  ruins  ;  the 
machinery  destroyed,  the  boilers  broken  and  strewn  about 
the  road.  If  it  were  not  for  the  law,  which  prohibits  the 
exportation  of  any  metals,  these  fragments  of  tbe  former 
opulence  of  Hayti  would  have  long  since  been  sold  to 
foreign  speculators.  During  this  long  excursion  we  only 
saw  one  machine  grinding  cane,  to  extract  the  juice  from 
which  tafia,  a  species  of  rum,  is  made,  with  which  the  in- 
habitants of  Hayti  become  intoxicated.  This  machine 
was  impelled  by  a  quantity  of  water  that  had  been  brought 
from  a  great  distance  through  an  aqueduct.  With  the 
exception  of  a  few  plantain  trees,  and  some  small  plots 
of  land,  sown  with  corn  around  the  huts,  there  was  no 
sign  of  the  surprising  fertility  of  these  magnificent  plains. 

"  At  the  time  when  it  was  occupied  by  the  French,  be- 
fore the  revolution  of  1793,  thousands  of  hogsheads  of 
sugar  were  made  ;  and  now  not  a  single  one  is  produced/ 

.  .  .  All  is  ruin  and  desolation.  The  pastures  are 
all  destroyed,  and  the  lands  formerly  so  luxuriant  with 
the  sugar  cane,  are  now  barren  and  overrun  with  weeds. 

u  The  hydraulic  works  constructed  for  irrigation,  which 
cost  immense  sums,  are  nothing  but  heaps  of  ruins.  The 
plough  is  an  agricultural  implement,  the  recollection  of 
which  has  been  lost  among  that  people,  although  it  is  so 
perfectly  adapted  to  its  extensive  fields  and  fruitful  soil. 

u  A  country  that  can  produce  so  many  articles  for  ex- 
portation, and  consequently  for  the  enrichment  of  its  in- 
habitants, which,  besides  sugar  and  coffee,  can  produce 
cotton,  tobacco,  cocoa,  spices,  all  kinds  of  tropical  and 
some  European  fruits,  lies  uncultivated,  lifeless  and  deso- 
late.    Only  small  quantities  of  logwood  are  exported  ;  of 


k 


189 

ebony,  mahogany,  and  other  precious  woods,  none  ;  as  the 
axe  of  the  wood  cutter  is  never  employed,  except  it  is  for 
local  uses.  The  present  inhabitants  despise  labor,  and 
the  majority  are  content  with  the  spontaneous  produc- 
tions of  the  woods." 

The  aforesaid  Underbill,  and  Mr.  Webley,  also  a  mis- 
sionary, have  likewise  written  on  the  condition  of  the 
Haytiens.  Leaving  aside  the  Christian  practices  which 
the  more  civilized  negroes  of  said  country  profess  in  their 
religious  worship,  they  declare  that  the  majority  profess 
the  religion  of  Vandoux,  i.  e.,  the  worship  of  the  serpent ; 
which  is  an  African  superstition,  and  which  no  longer 
leaves  a  doubt  of  the  retrocession  of  the  negroes  to  their 
original  state  of  barbarism. 

This  religious  ceremony  is  described  by  both  travellers 
in  the  same  manner,  differing  but  little  in  the  wording  as 
follows  : 

"  On  entering  the  selected  spot,  they  take  off  their 
shoes,  and  tie  a  handkerchief,  in  which  red  is  the  pre- 
dominant color,  around  their  waists.  The  king  is  recog- 
nized by  the  scarlet  band  which  encircles  his  forehead  like 
a  crown,  and  a  scarf  of  the  same  color  distinguishes  the 
queen.  The  serpent  is  placed  upon  a  platform,  where 
certain  savage  adoration  is  paid  to  it,  commencing  with 
the  following  chorus  :  « 

"  Eh  !  Eh  !  Bomba,  hen !  hen  ! — canga  tafia  te — 
cangamourne  de  le — canga  de  ki  li — canga  li." 

"  The  song  ended,  as  well  as  the  successive  gesticula- 
tions, which  are  numerous  and  very  strange,  the  serpent 
is  placed  in  a  box,  upon  which  the  queen  climbs,  and 
forces  herself  into  a  violent  trembling  fit,  pronouncing 
oracles  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  the  worshipers. 

"  Then  the  king  lays  his  hand  on  the  box  which  con- 
tains the  idol,  and  is  suddenly  seized  with  the  same 
trembling  that  the  queen  experienced,  which  is  next  com- 
municated to  the  entire  circle,  so  that  they  all  shake  as  if 
possessed  by  fiends.  A  wild  dance  follows  these  exercises, 
after  which  tafia  is  drunk  in  abundance  until  the  weaker 
ones  fall  apparently  lifeless  on  the  spot.  The  dissolute 
bacchanals  continue  to  enact  such  scenes  as  decency  for- 
bids us  to  describe,  and  which  would  even  cause  the 
heathen  gods,  if  such  gods  had  ever  existed,  to  shudder 
with  horror." 


j 


190 

What  a  horrible  scene  of  barbarism  does  this  present ! 
Moreover,  let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  though  we  have  to  re- 
peat it  once  more,  that  the  preceding  lines  were  written 
by  English  abolitionists.    . 

The  following  has  also  been  written  on  the  moral  ideas 
of  the  Haytians,  and  published  in  the  London  Missionary 
Herald : 

"Almost  all  of  the  negroes  of  that  republic  are  Van- 
doux.  They  practice  sorceries  and  mysticisms,  and  are 
extraordinary  adepts  in  poisoning,  the  person  whom  they 
select  as  a  victim  very  rarely  escaping  from  their  fiendish 
arts.  From  this  the  practice  of  oberism  or  sorcery  ap- 
pears to  be  as  general  in  Hayti  as  it  is  in  the  interior  of 
Africa." 

What  more  is  required  to  show  that  the  negroes  being 
emancipated  from  all  civilizing  laws  through  their  inde- 
pendence, have  returned  to  their  original  savage  state  ? 
Commerce  and  its  products  have  ceased  in  this  island 
since  it  became  independent,  and  its  inhabitants'  have 
gone  back  to  Afiican  heathenism. 

Are  additional  proofs  still  required  of  the  evils  caused 
to  humanity  and  to  the  civilization  of  those  unhappy 
beings  by  the  supreme  means  of  freedom  which  was  em- 
ployed to  better  their  condition  ? 

What  a  striking  contrast  there  is  between  the  soil  and 
inhabitants  of  Hayti  and  those  of  Cuba  ?  And  neverthe- 
less, at  the  present  time,  in  the  latter,  where  everything 
bears  the  mark  of  social  progress,  including  the  charac- 
ters of  the  negroes  who  live  there,  slavery  exists  (since 
that  is  the  name  applied  to  the  institution  of  organized 
labor,  in  which  there  are  but  few  traces  of  slavery,  justly 
so  called);  while  in  Hayti,  where  the  negroes  have  not 
only  accomplished  their  civil  emancipation  but  also  enjoy 
political  independence  and  self  government,  very  soon 
there  will  not  remain  a  single  vestige  of  the  civilization  of 
the  industrious  people  to  whom  these  fertile  lands  once 
belonged. 

And  to  give  to  these  comparisons  a  better  coloring  in 
the  minds  of  the  politicians  of  good  faith,  and  to  the 
logical  deductions  which  thinking  men  may  draw  from 
them,  it  is  proper  to  say  that  the  population  of  Hayti  has 
not  diminished  owing  to  its  independence,  but  has  rather 
increased  about  one-fifth  of  what  it  was  when  it  annihi- 


v 


191 

lated  the  whites  who  had  been  their  masters  ;  which  fact 
makes  the  extraordinary  decrease  of  their  agricultural 
production  the  more  censurable.  And  the  island  of  Cuba, 
whose  entire  population  scarcely  amounted  to  two  hun- 
dred thousand  souls  when  Hayti  made  herself  indepen- 
dent, that  is  to  say,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  has  since  then  multiplied  in  the  proportion  of 
seven  to  one,  or  in  the  same  proportion  as  that  of  the 
English  colonies  has  decreased  since  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves. 

Adding  to  these  figures  the  consideration  of  the  actual 
state  of  the  revenues  of  both  colonies,  it  will  be  seen,  that 
whilst  those  of  England  and  France  are  retained  only  as 
stratgetic  points,  and  their  administrations  and  small  gar- 
risons respectively  are  maintained  by  allowances  from  the 
public  treasury  ;  while  the  exports  of  Jamaica  which, 
thirty  years  ago,  were  estimated  at  ninety  thousand  tons, 
and  five  years  ago,  were  reduced  to  only  nineteen  thou- 
sand; and  whilst  in  the  French  colonies,  after  the  fall  of 
the  Republic  of  1848,  the  redemption  of  negroes  was  sub- 
stituted by  a  voluntary  contract,  very  similar  to  the  slave 
trade,  and  which,  though  by  a  strange  tolerance  of  the 
English  government,  was  considered  legal,  was,  neverthe- 
less, the  cause  of  bloody  scenes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  bark 
Regina  Cceli,  and  of  international  difficulties,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Charles  et  Georges;  the  Island  of  Porto  Rico 
covers  all  her  official  obligations  with  ease,  and  the  Island 
of  Cuba,  after  maintaining  on  a  war  footing  twenty-five 
thousand  soldiers  and  thirty  vessels  of  the  Royal  Navy  as 
an  ordinary  garrison,  after  paying  an  organized  adminis- 
tration which  would  almost  govern  a  kingdom,  and  also 
paying  the  Spanish  diplomatic  and  consular  corps  residing 
in  the  New  World,  remits  annually  to  the  treasury  of  ,the 
Metropolis  over  two  millions  of  dollars  as  the  overplus  of 
her  colonies,  or  pays  with  this  amount,  which  is  sometimes 
duplicated,  extraordinary  expenses  such  as  were  incurred 
by  the  re-incorporation  of  St.  Domingo,  its  sustenance 
and  improvement,  and  by  the  expensive  expedition  to 
Mexico.  ' 

In  order  that  these  data  may  not  be  used  as  an  argu- 
ment against .  slavery,  by  supposing  that  this  amount  is 
obtained  by  the  excessive  labor  exacted  from  the  slaves 
and  by  the  heavy  contributions  imposed  upon  property,  I 


j 


192 

will  add,  that  it  is  derived  without  much  effort  from  the 
Custom-house  duties,  which  are  eminently  liberal.,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  articles;  and  that,  besides  what  has 
already  been  shown  by  the  insertion  of  the  code  of  laws  in 
force  for  the  good  government  of  the  slaves,  and  what  has 
been  said  respecting  the  constant  and  the  ever  humane 
and  protecting  acts  of  the  local  authorities,  there  is  not  a 
single  negro  slave  in  the  island  of  Cuba  who,  after  having 
acquired  the  first  notions  of  the  work  which  he  has  to 
perform  and  of  his  civil  status,  is  willing  to  return  to  his 
native  country  with  his  freedom. 

Let  the  abolitionists  hear  this  again,  once  for  all,  and 
draw  their  own  deductions  in  good  faith  ;  and  let  them 
not  persist  in  their  absurd  idea  of  knowing  the  wants  of 
the  negroes  better  than  they  do  themselves. 

^nese  details  relative  to  the  Spanish  colonies  serve  ad- 
mirably to  analyze  the  second  phase  presented  to  the  ob- 
servation of  men  of  good  faith  by  this  question,  such  as  it 
has  been  established  by  the  abolitionists. 

I  have  already  stated,  and  I  now  repeat,  that  in  honor 
of  truth  I  will  not  attempt  to  deny  or  even  to  express  any 
doubt  that  the  introduction  of  Bozal  negroes  is  carried  on 
in  said  colonies  in  spite  of  the  treaties  extant.  Otherwise, 
as  the  practice  of  breeding  slaves  for  the  market  has  not 
been  established  in  the  colonies  as  it  has  been  in  the 
southern  states  of  the  Anglo-American  republic,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  account  for  the  extraordinary  increase  o 
the  colored  population,  and  still  more  impossible  that 
there  should  be  in  Cuba,  at  present,  three  times  the 
number  of  slaves  that  it  contained  in  1835,  when  the 
carrying  out  of  the  treaties  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade  had  been  agreed  on  definitely. 

From  these  facts,  which  speak  so  eloquently  of  the  in- 
efficiency of  said  treaties,  daily  and  hourly  opportunities 
have  been  sought  to  attribute  this  non-fulfilment  to  the 
bad  faith  of  the  authorities  charged  with  their  execution. 

The  English,  who  are  the  most  directly  interested  in 
the  prohibition  of  the  redemption,  who  have  more  numer- 
ous means  of  publicity,  and  whose  political  customs  are 
better  adapted  to  the  purpose,  have  accused  the  said  au- 
thorities in  every  known  form,  and,  in  some  cases,  in  a 
manner  not  becoming  international  respect,  without  ex- 
cluding the  government  in  Madrid,  which  has  sometimes 


v 


193 

been  the  object  of  rude  attacks  in  parliament  and  in  all 
the  newspapers  of  England.  And  Spain  and  her  public 
men,  who  attached  but  little  importance  to  such  freedom 
of  speech,  occasionally  vouchsafing  only  such  notice  as  was 
required  to  repel  some  offensive  phrase,  or  some  notoriously 
false  and  calumnious  assertions,  seeing  that  the  English 
believe  that  clandestine  redemption  can  be  repressed  with 
such  facility,  and  that  they  accuse  the  Spanish  authorities 
of  fostering  it,  have  finally  commenced  to  suspect  that 
this  conviction  and  this  suspicion  emanate  from  the  fact 
that  the  English  themselves  are  addicted  to  the  practices 
which  they  attribute  to  others. 

To  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  we  have  but  to  reflect  that 
England  has  numerous  vessels  of  her  royal  navy  stationed 
on  the  entire  coast  of  Africa,  commanding  an  uninter- 
rupted chain  of  strategic  points  which  are  in  her  posses- 
sion, and  that  said  vessels  are  commissioned  solely  and 
exclusively  to  prevent  the  redemption  of  Africans  wher- 
ever it  may  be  effected. 

The  logical  and  impartial  inference  which  can  be  drawn 
from  these  facts  just  stated,  is?  either  that  the  English 
cruisers  accept  bribes  from  #he  redeemers  of  negroes  in  the 
districts  where  the  trade  is  carried  on,  as  they  have  ac- 
cused the  Spanish  authorities  of  doing,  in  which  case 
they  should  not  be  allowed  to  escape  unpunished,  or  else 
that  the  redeemers,  being  stimulated  by  the  great  profits 
accruing  to  them  from  their  enterprise,  evade  the  vigilence 
of  the  English  in  Africa  with#  the  same  dexterity  with 
•  which  they  elude  that  of  the  Spaniards  in  the  New 
World. 

The  execution  of  the  existing  treaties  being  equally  en- 
trusted to  the  English  and  the  Spaniards,  to  the  former  in 
Africa  and  to  the  latter  in  America,  how  can  it  be  ex- 
pected that  those  who  can  pass  the  lines  of  the  former 
with  impunity  should  not  be  equally  successful  in  evading 
those  of  the  latter  ? 

It  must  be  confessed  that  this  argument  is  unanswer- 
able, the  more  so  as  the  points  where  the  redemption  is 
effected,  though  numerous  and  at  long  distances  from  each 
other,  are  perfectly  well  known  and  are  constantly  watched 
by  the  English  cruisers.  If  their  vigilance  was  exercised 
only  out  in  the  open  sea,  in  the  vast  expanse  of  the  ocean, 
it  would  then  be  an  easy  matter  for  the  traders  to  avoid 


j 


194 

them  by  navigating  by  different  parallels,  and  in,  that  case 
there  would  be  some  justice  in  throwing  all  the  responsi- 
bility on  the  Spanish  authorities,  their  vigilance  being 
confined  to  the  coasts  of  their  respective  districts.  But  as 
this  is  far  from  being  the  case,  and  as  both  on  the  coast 
of  Africa  and  in  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  there  are  cer- 
tain localities,  well  known  to  traders,  where  the  slavers 
evade,  in  like  manner,  the  operations  of  the  authorities, 
and  destroy  the  spirit  of  the  treaties,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  responsibility  lies  upon  the  English,  at  least  as 
fully  as  upon  the  Spaniards  ;  and  that  those  absurd 
charges  and  offensive  recriminations,  so  unjustly  made 
by  the  former  against  the  latter,  might  on  the  same 
grounds  be  directed  by  the  latter  against  the  former. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  evil  does  not  lie  in  the  proceed- 
ing of  the  English  cruisers,  nor  of  the  Spanish  authorities, 
but  in  the  spirit  of  the  absurd  treaties  which  are  charac- 
terized in  every  respect  by  their  short-sightedness,  illegal- 
ity and  immorality.  They  were  intended  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  negroes  in  Africa,  whereas,  never  until 
the  date  of  the  enforcement  of  the  treaty,  and  from  that 
time  to  this,  had  there  been  perpetrated  there  such  bloody 
and  revolting  scenes,  which  have  even  compelled  the 
English  to  commit  an  act  of  possession  which  looks  like 
violent  spoliation  in  a  friendly  land.  It  was  intended  also 
to  destroy  slavery  in  America  by  the  prohibition  of  re- 
demption, and  slavery  has  on  the  contrary  been  perpetu- 
ated, and  has  increased  in  an  extraordinary  manner.  It 
was  attempted  to  foster  colonial  wealth  by  means  of  free  < 
labor,  by  giving  absolute  freedom  to  the  negroes,  and 
with  it  encouragement  to  work  for  wages,  and  these 
recovering  their  natural  instincts  through  their  civil 
freedom,  have  abandoned  labor  and  have  ruined  the  co- 
lonies where  these  desolating  experiments  were  attempted. 
And  finally,  international  law,  reviled  and  scoffed  at  as  it 
has  been,  with  or  without  cause,  in  the  sense  which  the 
declaimers  against  the  clandestine  traffic  have  adopted, 
has  proved  with  still  greater  force  what  has  resulted  from 
former  evidence  that  the  treaties  are  absurd,  being  im- 
practicable, if  we  are  to  believe  the  result  of  thirty  years 
of  continual  experiments,  and  of  innumerable  and  useless 
precautions,  and  that  being  absurd  from  the  fact  that 
they  are  impracticable,  they  cannot  be  considered  legally 
binding. 


v 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Mutiny  of  the  negroes  on  board  the  Ship  Regina  Ccelis  and  bloody  des- 
truction of  the  whites  who  composed  the  crew. — Repugnant  demonstra- 
tions of  joy  exhibited  in  the  British  parliament  on  the  occasion  of  that 
butchery. — Attempts  made  by  the  British  government  on  the  petition  of 
its  Colonies  to  renew  the  redemption  of  negroes  under  another  name. — 
The  same  thing  attempted  by  the  French  government. — Case  of  the  Ship 
Charles  et  Georges  captured  by  Portuguese  cruisers. — International  conflict 
it  produced  between  France  and  Portugal. — The  attitude  taken  by  Eng- 
land in  consequence  of  this  conflict. — Imperial  ordinance  of  Napoleon  III 
ordering  the  suspension  of  the  new  form  of  the  redemption  of  negroes,  and 
announcing  his  treaty  for  obtaining  Chinese  in  the  English  possessions  in 
the  East. — Detailed  analysis  of  the  regulations  by  which  these  laborers 
are  governed  in  the  Island  of  Cuba. — Their  civil  condition  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  negro  slaves,  and  it  is  even  worse  in  some  respects. — Remark- 
able inconsistency  which  results  between  the  idea  of  abolishing  the  re- 
demption of  negroes  and  stimulating  the  servitude  of  the  Chinese. — Com- 
ments on  these  inconsistencies  to  show  their  true  phases  to  public  opi- 
nion. 


I  have  referred  in  a  former  chapter  to  two  events,  the 
relation  of  which  should  not  be  omitted,  because  one  of 
them  shows  the  lengths  to  which  an  idea  may  be  carried 
in  opposition  to  the  theories  which  gave  rise  to  it,  and 
the  other  affords  additional  proof  of  the  deplorable  state 
to  which  public  rights  were  reduced  by  the  abolition  of 
the  slave  trade,  and  shows  also  the  pretended  efforts  of  di- 
plomacy ostensibly  in  favor  of  colonial  interests,  but  in 
reality  to  establish  the  traffic  under  another  system  of 
laws. 

The  first  of  these  incidents  was  both  repugnant  and 
blood-thirsty,  and  although  it  can  by  no  means  'be  attri- 
buted to  the  machinations  of  the  fanatical  abolitionists  of 
the  London  society,  since  it  took  place  entirely  beyond 
the  limits  of  their  influence,  still  upon  its  immediate  re- 
sults being  made  manifest,  they  laid  themselves  open  to 
the  severest  censure  on  account  of  their  inhuman  readiness 
to  applaud  it. 


J 


196 

This  occurrence  was  nothing  less  than  a  mutiny  of  ne- 
groes who  had  been  contracted  for  the  French  colonies,  in 
conformity  to  a  new  plan  pursued  by  way  of  experiment 
by  the  emperor  Napoleon  III.,  which  mutiny  took  place 
on  board  the  French  merchant  ship  "  Kegina  Coeli." 
Owing  either  to  the  carelessness  or  the  humanity  of  the 
captain  of  the  vessel,  or  perhaps  to  a  combination  of  both, 
the  crew  was  surprised  and  attacked  by  the  negroes  on 
board,  who  were  being  conveyed  to  the  colonies  as  free 
laborers,  not  by  their  own  will,  but  by  the  rapacity  of 
their  captors,  who  had  sold  them  for  that  purpose.  The 
attack  was  as  disastrous  as  it  was  sudden,  so  that  one  in- 
dividual only  succeeded  in  escaping  the  general  massacre. 
The  case  was  too  horrible  not  to  produce  very  great  ex- 
citement, and  naturally  aroused  in  behalf  of  the  victims 
that  interest  which  in  all  similar  catastrophies  is  felt  by 
every  humane  heart.  This  occurrence  was  the  more  to  be 
lamented,  inasmuch  as  instead  of  emanating  from  a  mani- 
fest transgression  of  the  law,  as  would  otherwise  have  been 
the  case,  it  occurred  on  board  of  a  vessel  legally  authorized 
by  the  nation  to  which  it  belonged,  without  any  hindrance 
from  other  nations,  to  save  from  certain  death  those 
who,  in  return  for  the  charity  exercised  towards  them, 
thus  barbarously  treated  their  generous  preservers. 

There  was,  however,  one  exception  to  the  universal 
feeling  on  the  subject,  which  was  the  more  strange  and 
surprising,  as  it  was  publicly  expressed  in  the  British 
Parliament  by  one  of  the  most  illustrious  orators  of  that 
distinguished  assembly.  , 

I  shall  .not  be  the  one  to  proclaim  in  this  place  the  name 
of  that  great  philanthropist,  lest  the  just  indignation 
which  the  fact  will  arouse  in  all  well  organized  minds 
should  convert  that  name  into  an  object  of  public  execra- 
tion, but  I  will  not  refrain  from  saying  that  it  was  enrolled 
in  the  Anti-Slavery  Society;  and  that  though  this  society 
was  founded  by  an  impulse  of  exaggerated  love  of  human- 
ity, against  all  that  can  oifend  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
the  sentiment  expressed  by  the  orator,  lamenting  that  a 
single  individual  of  the  crew  of  the  French  ship  should 
have  escaped  from  being  butchered  by  the  negroes,  could 
not  be  more  opposed  to  that  philanthropy  so  much  cried 
up  by  the  society,  nor  more  disgraceful  to  the  principles 
by  which  it  is  fictitiously  governed. 


V 


197 

•  The  second  case  was  still  more  heinous,  and  mani- 
fested itself  under  circumstances  even  more  discreditable 
to  international  law,  at  least  according  to  appearances. 

As  soon  as  the  political  passions  were  quieted  among 
the  French  populace,  after  the  revolution  of  3848,  the  em- 
pire examined  into  the  spirit  of  republican  legislation,  and 
finding  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  already  decreed 
and  converted  into  an  accomplished  fact,  and  that  in  its 
natural  consequences  it  was  in  a  fair  way  to  ruin  the  col- 
onies, it  not  only  made  regulations  against  the  vagrancy 
of  the  negroes  with  others  intended  to  encourage  labor,  but, 
besides,  with  the  tacit  approbation  of  the  English  govern- 
ment, an  experiment  was  made  of  the  aforesaid  system  of 
free  labor  in  Africa,  by  opening  the  doors  of  emigration, 
which  had  the  character  of  being  voluntary,  in  order  to 
restore  to  the  colonies  their  former  prosperity. 

This  experiment  was  not  wanting  in  precedent,  it  hav- 
ing been  tried  by  the  English  themselves  on  a  former  oc- 
casion ;  and  let  it  not  be  thought  that  I  make  this 
statement  at  random,  I  do  it  with  the  official  evidence 
before  me  with  which  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  remon- 
strated against  the  attempt. 

This  system  originated  in  1841,  when,  on  the  15th  of 
February,  an  expedition  consisting  of  three  vessels  sailed 
from  the  Thames,  under  the  orders  of  Mr.  Barclay,  bound 
to  Sierra  Leone.  This  gentleman  was  a  member  of  the 
legislative  assembly  of  Jamaica,"  and  had  gone  to  the 
English  metropolis  expressly  to  make  known  the  absolute 
necessity  of  negro  laborers  in  the  colonies,  and  to  point 
out  the  only  way  in  which  that  necessity  could  be  supplied, 
which  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  former  redemp- 
tion, under  the  appearance  of  voluntary  emigration.  A 
great  inducement  which  undoubtedly  Amoved  the  British 
government  to  accede  to  the  request  of  the  colony,  was 
undoubtedly  the  vexation  felt  in  England  on  account  of 
the  necessity  of  buying  in  Hayti  the  coffee  needed  for 
home  consumption,  which  had  hitherto  been  supplied  ex- 
clusively from  English  possessions.  For  although  it  had 
been  attempted  to  remove  the  annoyance  by  exacting  that 
all  vessels  carrying  coffee  to  British  ports  should  touch  at 
Cape  Town,  that  measure  did  not  destroy  the  fact  of  her 
having  to  provide  herself  with  colonial  products  in  foreign 
lands,  while  she  herself  had  colonies  equally  fit  for  their 
culture. 


J 


198 

\ 

Mr.  Barclay's  expedition  undoubtedly  produced  the  de-  # 
sired  results  in  Jamaica,  and  I  believe  it  gave  rise  to  the 
custom  of  making  similar  expeditions  to  the  rest  of  the 
English  West" India  Islands,  which,  however,  were  under- 
taken with  certain  precautions  so  as  not  to  scandalize  the 
world.  The  truth  is,  that  the  re-engagement  of  laborers 
took  a  definite  form,  and  that  to  insure  the  success  of  this 
contract,  written  instructions  were  given  in  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  which  the  actual  practice  of  the  system  of  re- 
demption was  made  apparent  In  said  instructions,  the 
contracts  under  this  new  system  were  notified  that,  as  the 
negroes  were  unacquainted  with  the  value  of  money,  they 
should  provide  themselves  with  such  articles  as  might  be 
fancied  by  the  natives,  such  as — powder,  tobacco,  rum, 
Manchester  plaids,  caps,  laguli,  and  »a  few  firearms. 

"  To  engage  laborers,"  said  these  instructions,  "it  is 
indispensable  that  the  negroes  should  receive  in  advance 
the  value  of  a  months'  labor  in  different  articles,  accord- 
ing to  the  amount  which  has  been  agreed  upon  to  reward 
the  labor  of  each  man  ;  said  reward  to  consist  in  general 
of  a  quarter  of  a  keg  .of  gunpowder,  ten  manillas  of  to- 
bacco, and  a  bottle  of-  rum,  or  else  a  piece  of  Manchester 
plaid,  ten  manillas  of  tobacco  and  a  bottle  of  rum. 

"From  these  amounts  any  one  can  calculate  the  exact 
proportions  required  to  procure  any  number  of  laborers,  say, 
for  instance,  to  engage  forty  negroes  it  will  be  necessary  to 
be  supplied  with  twenty'muskets,  twenty-one  kegs  of  pow- 
der, twenty  gallons  of  rum,  eighty  pounds  of  tobacco,  and 
four  pieces  of  Manchester  plaids."      , 

If  we  take  into  consideration  the  amounts  of  these  ar- 
ticles which  are  more  than  sufficient  to  remunerate  th$ 
monthly  labSr  of  forty  negro  apprentices,  we  will  see  that 
their  punctual  payment  would  prove  highly  burdensome 
to  the  contractors,  consequently  we  can  well  imagine  that, 
as  far  as  their  salary  is  concerned,  the  condition  of  these 
negro  laborers  must  have  been  similar  to  that  of  their 
predecessors  under  the  new  regulations  issued  and  promul- 
gated in  the  English  colonies,  which,  after  slavery  was 
abolished,  were  not  so  liberal  as  they  had  formerly  been. 
And  we  are  further  strengthened  in  this  supposition  by 
finding  in  the  aforesaid  instructions  a  recommendation  to 
the  effect  that  the  chiefs  of  the  tribes  from  which  the  la- 
borers are  procured,  shall  be   propitiated  by  presents  of 


V 


199 

some  value,  which,  of  course,  are  to  consist  of  the  articles 
above  mentioned  ;  and  as  we  have  reason  to  suppose  that 
only  the  power  of  the  chiefs,  and  not  the  will  of  the  ne- 
groes themselves,  is  consulted  in  the  contract,  it  appears 
highly  improbable  that  the  contractors  should  fulfil  their 
part  of  the  agreement  when  they  have  secured  their  labors 
ers,  in  their  respective  countries,  where  the  customs-,  the 
wants,  and  the  laws  are  so  different  from  those  of  Africa. 

It  will  appear  natural  to  all  that  the  London  philan- 
thropic society  should  have  made  a  great  outcry  on  hear- 
ing of  Mr.  Barclay's  expedition  and  its  results,  but  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  guess  at  the  attitude  which 
would  be  taken  in  that  matter  by  Lord  John  Eussell,  at 
that  time  president  of  the  council  of  ministers.  This  cele- 
brated disclaimer  who,  in  parliament,  has  so  often  directed 
unmerited  reproof  against  the  Spanish  government,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society;  this  man,  famous 
as  a  philanthropist  for  his  speeches,  for  which,  whenever 
they  allude  to  forced  labor  in  the  colonies,,  present  him 
to  the  world  as  the  chief  defender  of  the  negroes,  not  only 
granted  Mr.  Barclay's  petition  and  authorized  the  redemp- 
tion in  Sierra  Leone,  limiting,  however,  the  term  of  slavery 
of  the  negroes  there  redeemed  to  fourteen  years,  but  he 
also  insulted  the  Anti- Slavery  Society  by  refusing  to 
communicate  with  it  personally,  but  referred  them  to  his 
secretary,  Mr.  Vernon  Smith,  in  a  few  brief  lines  which 
were  openly  contemptuous,  and  treated  only  on  general 
topics.(1) 

This  precedent  being  established,  and  it  being  besides  a 
well  known  fact  that  the  negroes  seized  from  slavers,  at 
sea,  by  the  English  cruisers,  are  not  returned  to  their 
country,  as  would  seem  just  and  natural,  but  are  taken  to 
the  English  colonies  for  a  certain  number  of  years  to  work, 
under  the  name  of  apprentices,  but,  in  reality,  as  slaves, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain  should  agree  so  well  with  that  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III.  and  tolerate  the  redemption  of  negroes, 
disguised  under  the  name  of  emigration,  in  the  manner 
in  which  it  had  been  practiced  by  the  French.       < 

(1)  My  late  esteemed  friend,  Don  Mariano  Torrente  preceded  me  in  in- 
vestigating; this  matter,  and  I  have  formed  the  above  statements  on  his 
works  winch  treat  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  and  also  on  some  explanations 
offered  by  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  English  Parliament. 


J 


200 

This  new  system  having  been  put  into  practice  with 
great  advantage  to  the  French  colonies,  which  owed  to  it 
.their  continued  prosperity  after  slavery  was  abolished, 
although  they  did  suffer  some  severe  losses,  the  Portuguese 
men-of-war  stationed  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  being  de- 
termined to  defend  the  treaties  in  force  against  the  re- 
demption, seized,  a  French  vessel,  the  Charles  et  Georges, 
which  was  engaged  in  shipping  a  cargo  of  the  so-called 
free  laborers.  And  on  the  said  vessel  being  taken  into 
the  port  of  Lisbon  as  a  legal  prize,  and  'its  seizure  and 
detention  being  approved  by  the  Portuguese  courts,  the 
French  Government,  becoming  at  once  acquainted  with 
the  facts  of  the  case,  and  without  any  right  further  than 
that  of  its  unquestionable  power,  claimed  the  absolute 
control  of  the  trial  of  the  cause,  and  imperatively  de- 
manded from  Portugal  that  the  captured  vessel  should  be 
immediately  released. 

It  was  said  at  that  time  that  this  occurrence  was  a 
crafty  and  .  underhanded  stroke  instigated  by  the  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  and  sustained  by  the  influence  which 
Great  Britain  possessed  with  the  court  of  Portugal ;  and 
though  it  is  possible  that  this  charge  may  have  been  un- 
founded, it  will  appear  very  natural  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public,  when  it  is  taken  into  consideration  that  said 
Society  had  remonstrated  very  strongly  with  the  English 
Government  against  the  tacit  concession  which '  it  made  to 
the  French  authorities  with  regard  to  the  practice  oi 
engaging  negro  laborers,  and  that  the  London  ministerial 
papers  were  the  most  energetic  defenders  of  the  immunity 
of  the  Portuguese  courts  and  of  their  executive  decision 
against  the, captured  vessel  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

Be  it  as  it  may,  and  much  as  the  Ministers  of  King 
Pedro  V.  may  have  endeavored,  in  all  good  faith,  to  main- 
tain the  authority  of  their  courts,  the  persistency  with 
which  they  refused  to  release  the  vessel  became  a  matter 
of  wonder  to  the  world,  as,  not  only  were  the  required 
papers  relative  to  the  expedition  found  in  good  order,  but 
there  was  also  on  board  an  official  agent  of  the  French 
Government  charged  with  the  direction  of  the  operations. 

Nevertheless,  the  serious  nature  of  the  case  became  ap- 
parent from  the  diplomatic  notes  which  were  exchanged 
between  France  and  Portugal,  some  characterized  by  their 
harshness,  while  others  were  offensive  to  the  dignity  oi 


V 


201 

the  respective  Governments,  and  also  from  the  fact  that 
the  former  sent  two  ships-of-the-line,  fully  armed  and 
equipped,  to  the  capital  of  the  latter,  with  strict  execu- 
tive orders,  it  being  a  noticeable  fact  that  while  the  French 
Government  took  up  this  position  all  the  London  official 
journals  unanimously  advised  Portugal  not  to  yield,  not- 
withstanding that  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  had 
volunteered  to  act  as  a  peaceful  me'diator  between  the  two 
nations. 

Whether  or  not  the  Anti-slavery  Society  of  London  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  aforesaid  events,  as  was  justly 
suspected,  the  fact  is  that  the  results  were- extremely 
favorable  to  its  views — thanks  to  the  political  circum- 
stances which  strengthened  for  the  time  being  the  official 
union  of  France  and  England.  For  the  latter,  ever  skil- 
ful in  taking  advantage  of  any  opportunity  which  might 
be  propitious  to  her  interests,  and  having  also  at  the  time 
undertaken  the  settlement  of  the  Italian  question,  with 
all  its  public  changes,  and  its  absolute  tendencies,  still 
unknown^  thought  it  opportune  to  recommend  to  her  ally 
(with  all  due  precaution  against  offending  her  dignity), 
the  abandonment  of  her  successful  undertaking  for  obtain- 
ing laborers  on  the  African  coast,  and  offered  her  in  ex- 
change a  great  number  of  them  from  the  East  Indies. 
And  France,  who  by  having  limited  the  work  of  said 
laborers  to  the  space  of  four  years  for  some,  and  for  others 
to  six,  found  that  her  colonies  were  not  much  benefitted 
by  the  new  system,  declared  herself  willing  to  make  a 
sacrifice  of  so  little  moment,  knowing  that  it  would  be 
the  means  of  giving  her  in  time  the  right  of  demanding 
more  abundant  and  valuable  acquisitions. 

It  is  for  this  reason,  according  to  my  understanding, 
that  the  mind  of  Napoleon  III.  underwent  a  complete 
change  with  regard  to  the  labor  of  the  negroes  and  the 
colonial  requirements,  which  change  was  proclaimed  to 
the  public  when  it  was  least  expected,  in  the  following  re- 
markable document : 

"  Fontainbleau,  1st  of  July,  1861  :— Mr.  le  Ministre— 
Since  the  emancipation  of  slavery,  our  colonies  have  en- 
deavored to  obtain  laborers  from  the  coasts  of  Africa,  by 
ransom  agd  by  means  of  the  contract  of  engagement 
which  secures  a  compensation  to  the  negroes  for  their 
labor.     These   contracts   are   made  good  for  five  or  six 


; 


202 

years,  after  which  time  the  laborers  are  to  be  taken  back 
gratuitously  to  their  country,  unless  they  should  prefer  to 
remain  in  the  colony,  in  which  case  they  will  be  allowed 
to  reside  there  in  the  same  manner  as  the  other  inhabit- 
ants. 

"  It  must  be  observed  that  this  species  of  engagement 
differs  entirely  from  the  slave  trade,  for  in  fact,  while  the 
one  has  slavery  in  view,  the  other  on  the  contrary  leads 
them  to  freedom.  When  the  negro  is  once  engaged  as  a 
laborer  he  is  free  and  is  not  subject  to  any  other  obliga- 
tion than  those  contained  in  his  contract. 

'•'  Nevertheless,  doubts  have  arisen  with  regard  to  the 
results  which  these  engagements  may  have  in  African 
countries,  and  the  question  has  been  asked  whether  the 
price  of  the  ransom  does  not  constitute  a  premium  in 
favor  of  slavery. 

"  In  1859  I  had  already  ordered  that  all  engagements 
should  cease  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  where  any 
difficulty,  might  have  arisen.  Later,  I  restricted  still 
more  these  operations;  and,  lastly,  I  have  expressed  the 
wish  that  all  the  questions  which  the  African  emigration 
should  give  rise  to,  may  be  carefully  examined. 

"  This  day  I  have  signed  a  treaty  with  her  Majesty  the 
Queen  of  Great  Britain,  in  which  her  Britannic  Majesty 
consents  to  authorize  the  engagement  of  laborers  for  our 
colonies,  from  her  possessions  in  the  East  Indies,  under 
the  same  conditions  which  are  laid  down  for  the  English 
colonies. 

"  We  will  then  find  all  the  free  laborers  which  we  will 
need,  in  the  East  Indies,  in  the  French  possessions  in 
Africa,  and  in  the  countries  where  slavery  still  exists. 
Under  these  circumstances  I  wish  the  traffic  of  Africans 
by  means  of  the  ransom  to  be  entirely  discontinued  by 
the  French  traders,  said  change  to  take  place  from  the 
day  on  which  the  treaty  made  with  her  Britannic  Majesty 
shall  be  carried  into  effect,  and  to  continue  in  force  all  the 
time  of  the  duration  of  said  treaty. 

*  "  If  this  treaty  should  be  suspended,  the  ransom  of 
Africans  shall  not  be  recommenced  except  under  special 
authorization,  and  then  only  if  it  is  found  to  be  indispen- 
sable, and  if  there  are  no  difficulties  in  the  way# 

"  You  will  therefore  take  the  necessary  measures  to 
carry  this  resolution  into  effect  by  the  1st  of  July,  1862, 


V 


203 

"  and  all  negroes  who  have  been  ransomed  on  the  coast  of 
Africa  after  this  date  shall  be   prohibited   entering  the 

colonies. 

"  Napoleon." 

From  the  recent  triumph  which  the  emancipators  of 
the  blacks  have  obtained,  we  naturally  come  upon  a  new 
question,  which  it  is- necessary  to  analyze  in  order  to  dis- 
cover whether  the  love  of  humanity  or  purely  interested  . 
and  selfish  stubborness  keeps  a  large  number  of  slave 
owners  in  constant  alarm,  and  causes  an  exterminating 
strife  between  two  incompatible  ideas,  all  on  account  of 
the  black  race. 

The  question  to  which  I  refer  is  that  of  the  importation 
of  Chinese  laborers  into  the  American  colonies,  in  which 
project  the  English  Government  took  very  decided  initia- 
tary  steps  with  the  end  of  promoting  it  as  a  substitute  for 
negro  labor,  as  has  been  proved  by  numerous  documents 
inserted  in  this  work. 

And  since  the  abolition  of  one  system  and  the 'adoption 
of  the  other  exhibit  an  inconsistency  which  cannot  be 
favorably  explained,  with  due  regard  for  the  humane  prin- 
ciples which  counselled  the  liberation  of  the  negroes ;  let 
us -compare  both  institutions  in  their  respective  legisla- 
tion, and  see  whether  justice,  as  it  is  understood  by  the 
scrupulous  English  philantropists,  is  a  strongly  marked 
ieature  of  the  new  idea,  or  whether  it  is  merely  a  question 
of  words  serving  as  a  basis  for  their  violent  attacks  upon 
the  former. 

It  is  on  this  point  I  wish  particularly  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  my  readers,  since  the  argument  will  be  facilitated 
by  the  remarkable  data  which  it  furnishes  for  the  better 
understanding  of  the  subject.  The  ransom  of  the  negroes 
is  not  submitted  to  voluntarily  by  the  ransomed  indivi- 
duals themselves,  but  is  the  consequence  of  right  of  co- 
ercion which  is  exercised  over  them  by  other  negroes  ; 
while  that  of  the  Chinese  on  the  contrary,  has  nothing 
compulsory  about  it,  since  it  depends  entirely  on  their 
own  will  whether  they  submit  themselves  to  it  or  not. 
There  is,  however,  a  vast  dissimilarity  in  this  comparison, 
a  dissimilarity  which  does  not  depend  on  the  interest  ot 
the  ransomers,  but  on  the  civil  state  of  the  respective 
countries  where  the  negroes  are  bought,  and  those  where 
the  Chinese  are  contracted  for. 


J 


204 

■ 

If  philanthrophy  could  establish  in  the  former  the 
civilization  Which  exists  in  the  latter,  it  could  then  with 
reason  interrupt  the  redemption  of  Africans,  and  do  away 
with  the  material  disparity  which  exists  between  the  two 
systems ;  but  as  it  is  at  present,  humanly  speaking,  im- 
possible to  place  the  Civil  state  of  those  countries  on  a 
level,  it  is  evident  that  the  philanthropy  which  persist- 
ently interferes  with  the  redemption  of  the  negroes,  and 
remains  an  impassive  spectator  of  the  revolting  scenes  of 
barbarity,  such  as  the  sacrifice  of  five  hundred  human 
beings  on  the  coast  of  Madagascar,  and  the  slaughter  of 
two  thousand  in  Dahomey,  is  absurd  and  even  criminal  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world,  especially  as  at  the  same  time  it 
encourages  the  servitude  of  the  Cninese  under  the  same 
conditions  and  for  the  same  labor,  as  will  be  presently 
demonstrated. 

The  personal  interest  of  the  contractors  being  the  chief 
object  in  both  systems,  and  the  benefit  of  the  colonies 
being  only  a  secondary  consideration,  the  engagement  of 
the  Chinese  naturally  degenerated  into  a  system  similar 
in  every  respect  to  the  redemption  of  negroes — the  ordi- 
nances for  their  introduction  into  the  island  of  Cuba,  for 
instance,  being  similar  to  those  which  existed  for  the  in- 
troduction of  Africans  before  the  prohibition  of  the  re- 
demption— the  regulations  existing  for  the  labor  and 
management  of  the  laborers  under  both  of  these  institu- 
tions, as  an  integral  part  of  the  estates,  being  nearly 
alike. 

For  this  reason  the  second  article  of  the  Regulations  for 
the  introduction  of  Chinese  laborers  decrees  that  every  im- 
porter must  have  a  consignee  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  who 
must  be  a  well  known  and  wealthy  proprietor  to  be  a  re- 
sponsible agent,  this  being  also  exacted  in  the  respective 
epochs  of  the  Contracting  Company  and  of  the  private 
contractors  who  purchased  the  privilege  of  taking  negroes 
to  the  Indies.  And  as  it  is  further  expressed  in  the  fif- 
teenth article  of  the  same  Regulations  that  said  consignee 
shall  deposit  fifty  dollars  in  the  Spanish  Bank  of  Havana 
for  every  Chinaman  that  is  consigned  to  him,  within 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  which 
brings  them,  it  is  evident  that  said  deposit,  although  it 
is  refunded,  increases  the  expenses  of  the  contracting 
parties,  and  consequently  burdens  still  more  the  civil  state 


V 


205 

of  the  Chinese  in  the  countries  where  they  are  employed. 

It  is  true,  and  it  would  be  wrong  to  omit  to  mention 
the  fact,  that  the  Chinese  go  to  the  colonies  as  day 
laborers  only,  and  that  but  for  a  limited  period,  while  the 
negroes  receive  no  remuneration  for  their  labor  further 
than  the  necessary  provision  for  their  material  wants  and 
their  moral  instruction,  but  at  the  same  time  this  differ- 
ence is  counterbalanced  by  the  fact  that  the  Engagement 
into  which  the  Chinese  enter  is  not  always  so  profitable  to 
them  as  would  appear  from  the  contract,  this  being  the 
result,  not  of  any  omission  or  evasion  on  the  part  of  the 
contractors,  but  of  the  regulations  themselves,  and  the 
clauses  which  they  contain. 

The  slowness  or  delay  in  the  work  of  the  journeymen, 
which  are  so  many  hours  lost  to  the  legitimate  interests 
of  the  proprietors,  is  compensated  by  making  a  discount 
from  their  salary  in  proportion  to  the  time  lost  ;  any 
breach  of  discipline  committed  by  the  Chinamen  on  the 
plantations  is  also  punished  by  fines,  which  imperceptibly, 
but  none  the  less  certainly,  diminish  their  wages,  which 
are  extremely  small,  so  that  the  majority  of  these  laborers 
are  placed  in  precisely  the  same  situation  as  the  majority 
of  the  negroes — that  is  to  say,  that  at  the  expiration  of 
their  contract  the  Chinese  are  in  a  state  of  complete  des- 
titution, without  any  resource  but  the  renewal  of  their 
contract,  thus  being  subjected  to  perpetual  labor,  in  the 
same  manner  that  the  law  perpetuates  the  servitude  of 
the  negroes  who  are  incapable  of  obtaining  their  freedom 
through  the  means  placed  within  the  reach  of  the  indus- 
trious and  orderly  by  their  owners. 

The  better  to  understand  all  the  minor  details  in  the 
comparison  which  I  have  made  between  these  two  systems, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  proprietors 
give  small  plots  of  land  to  the  negroes  on  their  planta- 
tions, that  they  may  cultivate  them  for  their,  own  benefit, 
on  feast  days  or  during  their  hours  of  relaxation,  except- 
ing in  harvest  time,  during  which  they  have  but  little 
spare  time  ;  or  else  they  have  them  instructed  in  some 
profitable  trade  or  employment,  so  that  the  industrious 
and  intelligent  may  have  the  chance  of  obtaining  their 
freedom  ;  from  which  fact  we  see  that  though  the  negroes 
are  not  paid  for  their  labor  by  any  settled  wages,  unlike 
'the  Chinese,  who  are  contracted  for  stated  sums,  they 


206 

nevertheless  receive  a  voluntary  remuneration,  which  has 
been  established  by  the  true  philanthropy  of  the  owners, 
and  which  has  been  sanctioned,  by  time,  until  it  has  be- 
come to  be  considered  almost  in  the  light  of  a  legal  obli- 
gation. Having  called  attention  to  this  point  with  the 
purpose  of  making  my  comparison  perfectly  intelligible,  I 
will  here,  with  the  reader's  permission,  append  such  arti- 
cles of  the  Kegulations  for  the  Chinese  laborers  as  may 
serve  to  corroborate  the  above  statement. 

The  sixth  article  will,  of  itself,  suffice  to  illustrate  some 
points.     I  will,  therefore,  produce  it,  in  its  own  words  : 

"  Every  contract  shall  contain  the  following  particulars  : 
First,  the  age,  sex  and  birthplace  of  the  Chinese  laborers 
who  shall  be  engaged.  Second,  the  length  of  time  that 
the  contract  is  to  last.  Third,  the  salary  and  the  quan- 
tity and  quality  of  the  food  and  clothing  which  they  are 
to  receive.  Fourth,  the  obligation  of  the  masters  to  give 
them  medical  assistance  during  their  illness.  Fifth,  whe- 
ther the  salary  is  to  be  discontinued  in  case  of  the  ill- 
ness of  the  laborer,  when  said  illness  does  not  originate  in 
his  work,  or  whether  the  continuation  of  the  wages  is  to 
be  left  at  the  option  of  the  owner.  Sixth,  the  number  of 
hours  which  the  laborers  will  be  obliged  to  work,  deter- 
mining whether  the  owner  shall  have  the  right  to  increase 
them,  in  some  days,  so  long  as  »he  compensates  for  this 
increase  by  a  corresponding  decrease  in  others.  Seventh, 
the  obligation  of  the  contracted  laborer  to  indemnify 
the  owner  the  hours  of  labor  which  he  loses  through  his 
own  fault." 

Then  follows  article  seventh,  from  which  the  civil  state 
of  the  voluntary  Chinese  laborers  has  every  appearance  of 
being  perpetual  and  forced,  since  it  is  extremely  difficult 
for  any  of  these  laborers  to  save  a  sum  sufficient  to  enable 
them  to  return  to  their  native  country,  as  they  receive 
very  small  wages,  which  are  further  diminished  by  the 
circumstances  mentioned  in  the  former  article.  And  in 
order  to  show  what  good  reason  I  have  for  thus  expressing 
myself,  I  here  copy  from  article  seventh,  word  for  word  : 

"  In  every  contract  made  with  the  Chinese  it  is  an 
essential  condition  which  ought  to  be  expressed  in  an  ad- 
ditional clause,  that,  after  the  expiration  of  the  term  ol 
the  contract,  the  Chinese  laborers  shall  not  be  permitted 
to  remain  in  the  island  of  Cuba  unless  they  enter  anew 


V 


207 

into  a  contract  of  the  same  nature,  in  the  condition  in 
which  they  were  before,  either  as  apprentices  or  journey- 
men under  the  supervision  of  a  master,  or  else  as  field 
laborers  or  domestic  servants,  recommended  by  their  mas- 
ters; in  default  of  which  they  shall  be  compelled  to  leave 
the  island,  at  their  own  expense,  within  two  months  of 
the  expiration  of  the  contract." 

After  reading  these 'regulations  we  cannot  but  see  what 
course  the  Chinese  are  compelled  to  take$  as  it  must  be  a 
difficult  matter  for  -them  to  return  to  their  own  country 
owing  to  the  immense  distance  and  the  interrupted  com- 
munications. For  although  the  aforesaid  article  does  not 
stipulate  to  what  particular  place  such  laborers  shall  go 
when  their  contract  has  expired,  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  be  unwilling  to  venture  into  any  strange  country, 
of  whose  laws  and  customs  they  are  entirely  ignorant,  per- 
haps to  endure  the  same  fate/ or  to  expose  themselves  to 
the  hardships  which  they  have  experienced  in  the  island. 

The  eighth  clause  of  article  sixth  identifies  the  con- 
tracted  Chinese  with  the  negro  slaves  in  such  a  manner 
that  both  systems  of  labor  are  considered  one  and  the 
same  thing  by  the  owners  and  overseers  of  the  planta- 
tions, and  in  the  workshops  where  they  are  employed. 
The  sixth  clause  and  several  articles  of  this  regulation, 
which  will  be  inserted  here,  may  be  used  to  combat  this 
assertion,  but  I  insist  that,  from  their  very  spirit,  it  will 
be  easy  to  corroborate  the  declarations  which  I  have  made 
with  regard  to  the  similarity  of  the  civil  status  of  the 
Chinese  and  negro  laborers. 

The  sixth  clause,  in  fact,  expresses  that  in  every  con- 
tract made  with  the  Chinese  it  will  be  necessary  to  state 
the  number  of  hours  he  is  to  work,  daily  ;  and  also  if 
the  master  is  to  have  the  privilege  of  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  working  hours  when  he  may  deem  it  necessary, 
compensating  said  increase  by  a  proportionate  decrease 
whenever  it  may  be  practicable.  My  readers  will  under- 
stand that  as  the  contractors  are  immediately  interested 
in  the  matter,  they  naturally  endeavor  to  draw  up  the 
contracts  in  such  a  manner  that  the  greatest  possible  ad- 
vantage may  accrue  to  the  proprietors,  and  this  is  the 
more  natural  as  the  contracting  of  these  Chinese  origin- 
ated in  the  necessity  of  procuring  laborers  to  substitute 
the  negroes,  or  to  make  up  for  any  deficiency  in  the  num- 


J 


208 

ber  of  the  latter,  and  it  would  be  useless  and  unprofitable 
to  engage  them  under  other  conditions.  For  this  reason 
the  clauses  concerning  the  hours  of  labor  are  drawn  up  in 
the  contracts  in  ambiguous  terms,  generally  specifying 
only  that  the  hours  of  labor  shall  be  arranged  according 
to  the  custom  prevailing  with  other  laborers.  Thus  it  is 
that  article  fifty- fourth  of  the  Regulations  for  the  in- 
troduction  of  Chinese  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  says  as  fol- 
lows :  4 

"When  it  is  expressed  in  the  contract  that  the  master 
is  to  have  the  right  of  distributing,  in  the  manner  most 
conducive  to  his  interests,  the  number  of  working  hours 
agreed  upon  with  the  laborer  according  to  what  is  pre- 
scribed in  the  sixth  clause  of  article  seventh,  it  is  under- 
stood that  said  right  is  limited  in  such  manner  that  the 
laborer  "  can  never  be  compelled  to  work  over  fifteen  hours 
a  day,  and  is  always  entitled  to  at  least  six  hours  of  un- 
interrupted rest,  either  by  night  or  by  day."  This  article, 
although  it  is  not  exactly  ambiguous,  proves  most  unmis- 
takeably  that  the  masters  can,  at  their  option,  establish 
the  distribution  of  the  hours  of  labor,  according  to  their 
own  interests,  and  that  the  Chinese,  with  but  a  slight 
difference,  are  obliged  to  do  the  maximum  of  labor  which 
is  imposed  on  the  negroes,  according  to  article  twelfth,  in 
the  regulations  which  have  already  been  inserted  in  this 
work. 

And  this  identity  will  be  still  more  apparent  even,  if 
we  allow  that  the  hours  of  labor  are  distributed  in  a  man- 
ner favorable  to  the  Chinese,  if  we  take  into  consideration 
what  is  expressed  in  the  fifty-third  article  of  the  Slave 
Regulations;  as  the  former  assigns  twelve  hours -daily 
as  the  average  term  of  labor  to  the  contracted  Chinese, 
while  in  the  latter,  ten  hours'  work  only  can  be  exacted 
from  the  negroes,  except  during  the  harvest  season  or  in 
case  of  urgent  necessity. 

When  the  contractors  make  over  the  Chinese  to  private 
individuals  it  is  very  evident  that  the  latter  have  to  pay  a 
sum  which  will  cover  the  expenses  of  the  contractors,  i.  e., 
the  advances  made  to  the  Chinese  in  their  country  to  in- 
duce them  to  enter  into  the  engagement;  the  commissions 
paid  to  the  agencies  there  established  for  this  enterprize  ; 
the  consular  fees  ;  the  expenses  of  the  fitting  out  of  each 
ship   in  its  outward  and  homeward  voyage,  and  of  the 


V 


209 

maintainance,  clothing  and  attendance  on  the  Chinese dur- 
ing  the  passage;  the  expenses  of  the  consignees,  who  must 
be  residents  in  Havana,  according  to  the  regulations  ;  the 
deposit  of  fifty  dollars  to  be  made  in  advance  to  the 
Spanish  Bank  of  said  city  for  each  emigrant ;  the  per- 
centage which  shall  accrue  from  the  capital  invested  in  all 
the  undertakings;  and  lastly,  the  profits  calculated  to 
stimulate  the  carrying  on  of  the  enterprize. 

From  these  antecedents  we  cannot  but,  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Chinese  are  sold  to  the  proprietors  of  the 
plantations  and  workshops  by  thai  parties  who  contract 
them  as  free  laborers,  in  the  identical  manner  that  negroes 
are  sold  to  these  same  proprietors  by  the  traders  who  re- 
deem them  as  slaves.  And  even  supposing  that  the  price 
of  the  Chinese  differ  much  from  that  of  the  negroes,  this  does 
not  do  away  with  the  positive  fact  that  the  Chinese  are 
sold  and  that  they  have  greater  difficulty  in  obtaining 
their  freedom  than  the  negroes,  as  we  will  presently  de- 
monstrate. 

-  In  fact,  the  sale  is  legalized  by  the  twenty-third  article 
of  the  Regulations  concerning  the  Chinese,  which  says  : — 
"  Those  who  introduce  Chinese  laborers  will  have  the  pri- 
vilege of  transferring  them  to  other  contractors,  to  land- 
holders or  any  o^her  individual,  under  whatever  conditions 
they  may  deem  proper,  provided  those  persons  pledge 
themselves  to  fulfil  the  contract  made  with  said  laborers, 
and  to  observe  these  regulations.  The  cessionaries  of  the 
Chinese  will  hold  the  same  power,  under  the  same  condi- 
tions ;  but  if  the  stipulations  expressed  in  the  original 
contracts  are  altered,  then  the  said  transfer  will  be 
null  and  void."  By  which  transmission  of  authority  from 
one  cessionary  to  another  it  is  evident  that  the  Chinese 
are  legally  sold  in  the  island  of  Cuba  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  negroes,  and  without  any  restrictions. 

That  the  Asiatics  in  the  Spanish  possessions  may  not 
oppose  themselves  to  the  workings  of  their  disguised  ser- 
vitude, article  thirty-fourth,  of  the  Regulations,  says  as  fol- 
lows: "  The  laborers,  be  it  understood,  on  signing  or  agree- 
ing to  the  contracts  with  those  who  contract  them.,  thereby 
lose  all  civil  rights  which  are  not  consistent  with  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  obligations  which  they  have  contracted,  unless 
it  be  some  right  expressly  mentioned  in  the  regula- 
tions." This  article  alone  is  sufficient  to  sum  up  the  com- 


J 


210 

parison  which  is  now  being  drawn  to  prove  that  the  phi- 
lanthropy which  labors  for  the  introduction  of  Chinese 
in  the  colonies  so  as  to  destroy  slavery,  is  entirely  misdi- 
rected ;  but  there  are  others  which  still  further  prove  the 
opinion  here  expressed,  as  they  refer  to  the  children  born 
in  this  condition. 

The  civil  freedom  of  the  Chinese  laborers  being  a  fact, 
according  to  the  name  of  this  institution,  it  would  be  na- 
tural that  the  law  should  not  interfere  with  the  children 
born  on  the  Island  of  Cuba  during  their  mothers'  servi- 
tude, excepting  to  project  and  sustain  them  in  their  help- 
lessness during  the  first  years  of  their  life.  This  would 
appear  from  article  thirty-six,  which  says:  "  Laborers  can 
exercise  their  parental  authority  over  their  children,  and 
their  marital  powers  over  their  wives  so  long  as  they  are 
consistent  with  the  legal  condition  of  the  said  children 
and  wives." 

But,  in  order  to  show  what  that  legal  condition  is  which 
limits  parental  authority,  article  thirty-seventh  follows 
immediately,  with  these  words:  "  The  children  of  laborers, 
born  during  the  term  of  the  contract  of  their  mothers, 
shall  remain  in  the  same  condition  as  their  mothers  so 
long  as  said  contract  lasts;  but  on  attaining  the  age  of 
eighteen  years  they  shall  be  entirely  frfee,  even  though 
their  mothers  may  still  be  contracted. 

"  The  minor  children,  which  the  women  may  have  at  the 
time  of  entering  into  the  contract,  shall  remain  subject  to 
the  condition  which  the  mothers  may  agree  upon  with  the 
contractors.  But  if  no  stipulations  are  made  beforehand, 
then  the  children  will  be  entirely  free;  and  shall  be  fed, 
lodged  and  clothed  by  the  owners  of  their  mothers,  on  the 
same  conditions  as  those  established  for  the  latter,  until 
they  have  accomplished  their  twelfth  year."    , 

Now,  after  carefully  analyzing  all  that  comprises  the 
former  chapter,  we  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  law 
gives  us  to  understand  that  the  contract  of  an  Asiatic  la- 
borer can  last  over  eighteen  years,  that  period  having  been 
assigned  for  declaring  free  the  children  of  contracted  fe- 
males who  may  be  born  in  the  Island  of  Cuba  during  the 
servitude  of  their  mothers,  even  should  these  continue  in 
the  condition  of  laborers;  and  this  estimate  does  not  refer 
to  the  number  of  years  stipulated  in  the  original  contract, 
as   none   is   ever  made   for  a   term  of  over  eight  or  ten 


V 


211 

years,  and  many  for  a  lesser'period,  but  is  founded  on  the 
supposition  that  the  condition  of  these  labors  is  perpetu- 
ated from  the  moment  that  they  enter  the  island,  since  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  leave  it  at  their  own  expense. 

We  can  also  draw  another  and  more  important  conclusion, 
which  is  the  most  conclusive  proof  that  the  state  of  the 
Chinese  laborers  is  assimilated  to  that  of  the  negro  slaves, 
viz  :  that  the  master  takes  possession  of  an  individual 
over  whom  he  has  no  natural  right,  and  whom  he  cannot 
claim  as  his  property,  but  by  the  laws  of  servitude,  even 
though  his  authority  over  him  be  limited  to  a  certain  pe- 
riod. 

We  see  also  that,  although  the  law  declares  these  indi- 
viduals to  be  free  on  arriving  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years, 
their  freedom  is  merely  nominal,  as  it  is  further  decreed 
that  all  Chinese  who  are  not  contracted  shall  be  expelled 
from  the  island  of  Cuba,  within  two  months  of  their  free- 
dom, so  that  the  so-called  freedmen,  not  wishing  to  be  so- 
journers out  of  their*  native  land,  have  no  option  but  to 
return  to  the  state  in  which  they  lived  when  minors,  ac- 
cording to  the  condition  of  their  respective  mothers,  which 
cannot  be  other  than  that  of  servitude. 

And  now,  in  order  to  prove  with  what  truth  I  have  said 
that  the  redemption  of  the  Chinese  from  their  servitude, 
by  their  savings  and  by  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  is  impos- 
sible or  at  least  very  difficult,  I  must  call  attention  to  ar- 
ticle forty- third  of  said  regulations,  which  says  as  follows: 
"  Every  laborer  will  have  the  right  to  liberate  himself  from 
the  dominion  of  his  master,  by  payiug  in  advance,  in  ready 
money,  first:  the  amount  paid  for  him;  second:  the  amount 
which  the  laborer  may  owe  his  master  as  an  indemn'ifica- 
tion  for  loss  of  labor  or  any  other  cause;  third:  the  high- 
est value  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  appraiser,  the 
services  of  the  laborer  has  apquired  since  he  entered  into 
the  service  of  his  master;  fourth:  the  amount  of  damages 
which  may  result  to  the  master  from  the  difficulty  to  re- 
place him  by  another.  The  laborer  cannot  avail  himself 
of  this  right  during  harvest  time,  nor  at  any  other  time 
when  urgent  work  is  required  on  feast  days." 

After  the  remarks  and  commentaries  which  have  been 
made,  the  perusal  of  said  article  will  convince  any  impar- 
tial mind  that  the  law  has  designed  to  identify  the  two 
races  of  laborers,  that  the  ostensible  differences  should  not 


212 

create  any  very  serious  obstacles  to  the  regulations  of  the 
plantations  nor  to  the  interests  of  the  landlords.  And,  as 
in  matters  which  solely  depended  on  a  name,  and  nothing 
more,  that  assimilation  would  have  been  absolutely  impos- 
sible; yet  the  law  made  it  appear  more  easy  for  the  negro 
slaves  to  acquire  their  freedom,  than  for  the  contracted 
Chinese  to  emancipate  themselves  from  compulsory  labor. 

To  accomplish  this  end  there  were,  no  doubt,  as  many 
obstacles  raised  against  the  latter  as  there  were  facilities 
granted  to  the  former;  and  while  the  orderly  and  intelli- 
gent negroes  are  paying  the  price  of  their  emancipation, 
by  instalments,  no  right  being  left  to  the  owner  to  raise 
the  original  value  of  the  slave,  or  to  retain  him  in  bond- 
age after  the  conditions  of  his  emancipation  are  fulfilled, 
whether  it  be  or  not  the  busy  season,  all  which  conditions 
are  inserted  in  the  rules  and  ordinances  which  have  been 
copied  entire  in  this  work;  the  most  laborious  and  for- 
tunate Chinese  could  only  cease  to  be  compulsory  laborers 
by  the  voluntary  generosity  of  their  employers,  who  would 
be  willing  to  liberate  them  and  to  give  them,  besides,  their 
passage  back  to  China. 

A  real  and  positive  difference  of  much  importance  in 
the  regulations  exists  between  the  condition  of  the  negro 
slaves  and  the  Chinese  laborers,  viz:  that  which  relates  to 
corporeal  punishments,  which  are  prohibited,  as  a  general 
rule  in  the  said  regulations," to  be  inflicted  on  them. 

This  difference  arises  rather  from  the  fundamental  cir- 
cumstances of  the  education  of  each  class  when  they  ar- 
rive in  the  island  of  Cuba  than  from  their  civil  state.  The 
Chinese  springing  from  an  enlightened  society  in  their 
own  way,  and  belonging  to  one  of  the  great  historical 
branches  of  the  human  family,  among  whom  some  think 
the  art  of  printing  had  its  birth,  and  that  artillery  was 
first  invented  as  a  pious  modification  of  war,  not  as  a  des- 
tructive element  which  has  been  given  to  its  use  now-a- 
days  by  nations  who  suppose  themselves  infinitely  more 
civilized;  that  race  among  whom  philosophy  and  jurispru- 
dence had  already  made  so  much  progress  in  the  remote 
times  of  Confucio,  and  where,  at  the  present  day,  the  arts 
exhibit  themselves  so  wonderfully  advanced,  it  would  not 
have  been  just  to  establish  them  among  us  on  the  same 
footing  as  the  negroes,  who  are  born  and  live  in  a  savage 
state  until  their  redemption  opens  to  them  the  doors  of  a 


213 

civilization  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  teach  them  the  first 
rudiments. 

The  English  themselves,  on  abolishing  slavery  in  their 
colonies  in  a  decided  and  definite  manner,  allowed  the 
punishment  by  lashes  to  remain  in  their  regulations  of 
those  who,  from  that  time,  were  called  apprentices;  based, 
no  doubt,  on  the  facts  just  stated  of  their  absolute  want 
of  culture  and  limited  understanding.  To  act  otherwise 
in  a  question  so  much  discussed,  would  be  as  much  as  to 
condemn  in  parents  the  natural  jurisdiction  which  makes 
them  inflict  corporeal  punishment  upon  their  children, 
Without  injuring  them,  of  course;  which  is  the  way  that 
the  negroes  are  punished  according,  to  the  regulations. 

And  yet,  as  in  the  same  race  all  the  individuals  differ  so 
much  from  one  another,  there  are  cases,  and  this  is  well 
known  by  all  who  are  acquainted  with  the  island  of  Cuba,  in 
which  corporeal  punishment  is  inflicted  on  the  Chinese, 
without  the  interference  of  the  authorities,  provided  the 
punishment  does  not  go  beyond  the  limits  of  humanity 
which  govern  the  negroes.  This  is  done  in  the  presence 
of  everybody,  and  is  blamed  by  no  one,  because  the  delin- 
quency which  causes  the  punishment  is  also  made  public, 
though  it  may  have  been  committed  privately. 

Moreover,  the  regulations  which  prohibit  the  corporeal 
punishment  of  the  Chinese  for  ordinary  faults  do  not  ab- 
solutely exclude  them  from  correction;  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  recommended  for  grave  cases,  and  to  be  done  with  so- 
lemnity, the  well  behaved  being  obliged  to  witness  the 
punishment  of  the r  bad.  as  may  be  read  in  the  following 
article: 

"  78. — In  case  of  insubordination  or  resistance  by  force 
to  the  orders  of  their  superiors,  on  the  part  of  the  la- 
borers collectively,  the  owner  shall  have  the  right  to 
use  force  also  to  subdue  them;  giving  immediate  infor- 
mation to  the  delegate  protector,  that  he  may,  should 
the  gravity  of  the  case  require  it,  direct  that  the  cul- 
prits be  punished  in  presence  of  the  other  laborers." 

This  rule,  as  is  evident,  cannot  mean  anything  else  but 
corporeal  punishment  by  summary  procedings,  and  not  such 
as  are  customary  to  the  administration  of  justice  in  con- 
formity with  the  existing  laws;  as  in  that  case  the  dele- 
gate protecfor  coulcl  not,  impose  it,  nor  could  the  delin- 
quents be  punished  in  the.  presence  of  the  other  laborers, 
except  in  case  they  were  sentenced  to  death. 


214 

In  short,  analyzing  the  jurisdiction  and  the  state  of  be- 
ing of  the  new  institution  of  the  contracted  Chinese,  it 
proves  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  redeemed  negroes,  to 
labor  in  a  conditional  or  temporal  servitude,  with  slight 
modifications  which  do  not  exist  in  fact,  but  simply  in 
name.  And  this  being  the  case,  as  is  evinced  by  the  print- 
ed regulations  which  are  officially  circulated,  and  is  prac- 
tically carried  out  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  in  presence  of 
both  natives  and  foreigners,  (the  British  government  and 
the  London  Anti-Slavery  Society  may  easily  know  the 
fact,  and  they  do  know  it,  and  care  nothing  about  it),  we 
shall  come  to  the  conclusion  which  has  already  been  arriv- 
ed at  in  this  chapter,  viz:  that  the  persistent  persecution 
set  up  against  the  redemption  of  the  negroes  is  an  absurd- 
ity founded  in  human  pride,  which  having  been  started 
through  error,  will  not  now  confess  they  are  wrong 

How,  otherwise,  could  this  pertinent  tendency  against 
the  redemption  of  negroes  keep  in  constant  action  thou- 
sands of  intellects  fitted  for  other  and  much  better  and 
useful  occupations,  however  insignificant  they  might  be; 
by  the  advice  emanating  from  those  very  persons,  and  al- 
ways reproduced  in  favor  of  Chinese  immigration,  whose 
regulations  they  do  not  ignore,  and  whose  practices  they 
know? 

To  give  another  turn  to  this  question  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  suppose  that  they  are  influenced  by  cunning;  the 
labor  of  the  Chinese  not  being  as  productive  as  that  of 
the  negroes,  and  degenerate  so  much  in  field  labor  as  to 
become  almost  useless;  for  which  reason  some  people  have 
suspected  that  what  they  aim  at  is  only  to  equalize  all  the 
colonies  which  Europe  has  in  the  New  World,  improving 
those  which  at  present  produce  little  or  nothing,  at  the 
expense  of  those  which  are  at  the  height  of  their  prosper- 
ity. 

I  am  not  the  one  to  give  countenance  to  this  unchari- 
table idea;  prefering  to  attribute  this  palpable  contradic- 
tion, which  results  from  all  that  has  been  said,  rather  to 
a  compromise  entered  into  with  rooted  prejudices  and  with 
the  exigencies  resulting  from  them. 

For  the  rest,  it  may  well  be  considered  that  if  the  Chi- 
nese voluntarily  accept  of  servitude,  being  civilized  people 
who  have  a  vast  knowledge  of  natural*  rights  and  the  gen- 
eral notions  of  civil  rights,  which  are  within  the  reach  of 


V 


215 

all,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  negroes  would  not  reject  it 
if  in  a  state  of  civilization  as  forward  as  that  of  their  co- 
leagues  in  the  colonial  labor,  they  could  understand  it  pre- 
viously to  and  at  the  time  of  their  voluntary  contract. 

For  this  reason  I  think  that  all  attempts  which  tend  to 
prohibit  the  redemption  and  civilization  of  the  negroes, 
are  at  least  as  bad  as  those  which  tend  to  the  propagation 
of  an  immigration  which  constitutes  a  real  servitude  to 
the  Chinese,  because,  as  to  the  former,  it  perpetuates  their 
abominable  state  and  renders  them  of  no  service  to  the 
civilization  of  the  world,  as  they  can  only  acquire  it  through 
forced  labor;  and  the  latter,  because  a  people  who  are  poor, 
perhaps,  but  already  civilized,  are  degraded  in  foreign 
lands. 

Let  all  thinking  men  of  the  nations  interested  weigh  the 
subjeet  I  have  just  analyzed,  and  let  them  become  accus- 
tomed to  listen  to  the  truth  free  from  artful  dissimulation, 
for  I  still  have  much  to  say  to  them. 


CHAPTER  X* 


Calamities  which  the  perverseness  of  the  Abolitionists  has  occasioned 
in  the  world. — Civil  war  of  the  United  States. — Origin  and  history  of  the 
revolt  of  the  South. — Insurrection  at  Harper's  Ferry. — Death  of  John 
Bown. — Excitement  and  blasphemies  which  it  called  forth  in  the  North, 
and  in  the  slave  States. — Fruitless  efforts  to  maintain  peace. — Municipal 
elections. — Parliamentary  commotions. — The  election  of  Lincoln  renders 
war  inevitable. — Proclamations  of  the  Executive  abolishing  slavery  in  the 
rebellious  States  and  respecting  it  in  the  others. — The  constitutional 
legality  of  said  proclamations  analyzed. — Their  negative  results  towards 
the  re-establisment  of  the  Union. — Remarkable  documents  as  to  its  con- 
tradictory sense. — Aspect  taken  by  the  civil  war  after  the  issuing  of  the 
said  proclamations. — Calamities  brought  down  on  the  people,  on  the  Na- 
tional Treasury,  and  on  the  public  credit. 


If  the  treaties  now  in  force  for  the  prohibition  of  the 
redemption  of  Africans,  and  the  unceasing  labors  of  those 
who  desire  to  abolish  the  system  of  labor  imposed  upon 
said  negroes  by  civilization,  had  been  productive  of  no 
other  evils  than  the  decline  of  the  colonies,  the  moral  and 
physical  degradation  of  Hayti,  the  indignity  of  having  ci- 
vil equality  applied  to  an  inferior  race,  in  our  midst,  the 
continual  violation  of  public  law,  besides  all  the  interna- 
tional outrages  to  which  they  gave  rise,  and  even  the 
slaughter  of  wretched  African  captives  by  barbarians  of 
their  own  race,  who  sacrifice  their  prisoners  when  unable 
to  sell  them,  then  we  might  even  tolerate  that  fatal  per- 
sistency of  purpose  which  has  proved  the  author  and  un- 
wearied promoter  of  so  much  discord  and  has  caused  the 
ruin  of  so  many  communities. 

But,  in  addition  to  the  serious  results  which  I  have  just- 
mentioned,  each  of  which  is  in  itself  of  sufficient  signifi- 
cance to  silence  sentiment  and  restore  to  reason  her  legi- 
timate ascendency,  another,  an  immense,  terrific  and  irre- 


217 

parable  calamity  has  been  the  consequence  of  that  bane- 
ful fanaticism:  the  battlefield  has  been  chosen  as  the  bar 
at  which  to  discuss  the  question  which  has  arisen  between 
mistaken  philanthropy  and  the  most  important  interests, 
and  the  thunder  of  cannon  is  heard  while  the  voice  of 
reason  and  philosophy  is  hushed. 

In  one  of  the  most  flourishing  countries  in  the  world, 
human  blood  now  flows  in  torrents  in  a  doubtful  and  am- 
biguous cause,  which,  whatever  be  the  manner  in  which 
it  may  finally  be  settled,  cannot  have  any  but  absolutely 
negative  results;  and  this  will  appear  evident  to  all  if  they 
will  take  into  consideration  the  spirit  in  which  the  war  has 
been  conducted  on  both  sides.  1  repeat,  the  cause  will  be 
defeated  in  any*  event,  for,  if  the  abolition  sentiment 
triumphs,  the  future  freedom  of  the  negroes  will  prove 
worse  than  their  present  state  of  servitude,  as  has  been 
the  case  in  all  parts  of  the  world;  and  if,  on  the  contrary, 
slavery  is  perpetuated  by  force  of  arms,  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  this  institution  will  then  be  restored  to  its  ori- 
ginal form,  that  it  may  be  less  exposed  to  the  attacks  of 
modern  interference. 

I  mean  that,  if  the  abolitionists* triumph,  the  advent  of 
peace  will  prove  fatal  to  the  South  section  of  the  great  Ame- 
rican federation ;  and,  if  they  are  defeated,  Christianity  and 
its  civilizing  influences  will  be  made  to  recede  eighteen  and 
a  half  centuries.  This  is  the  present  state  of  the  question, 
and  such  will  inevitably  be  its  termination,  if  the  obsti- 
nacy of  the  one  party  and  the  rancor  of  the  other  do  not, 
for  the  common  weal,  adopt  a  different  policy. 

Twelve  years  have  already  elapsed  since  this  antagonism 
began  to  assume  a  threatening  aspect  in  the  United  States 
of  North  America,  and  this  I  do  not  affirm  at  random,  for 
the  antagonism  already  existed,  though  in  a  pacific  form, 
for  a  very  long  time,  owing  to  the  difference  in  the  local 
institutions  and  the  counter  tendencies  of  opposite  inter- 
ests. 

In„,  one  of  those  slave  States  which  are  now  defending 
their  cause  with  the  greatest  ardor,  tumultuous  meetings, 
fiery  discourses  and  propositions  of  disunion  had  already 
been  presented  to  the  consideration  of  impartial  observers, 
whereby  they  were  enabled  to  predict  with  certainty  and 
without  any  great  mental  effort  what  was  so  soon  to  come 
to  pass,  if  the  impending  evil  were  not  averted. 


218 

In  fact,  two  years  after,  the  disruption  of  the  Union 
was  foretold,  and  even  the  time  when  the  catastrophe 
was  to  take  place  was  designated; (1)  and,  in  spite  of  this 
natural  conjecture  which  was  expressed  by  an  obscure 
'  individual,  and  which  was  undoubtedly  held  by  some 
few  politicians  who,  unlike  the  generality  of  their  class, 
were  not  blinded  by  their  own  private  interests,  the  in- 
difference of  some,  the  fanaticism  of  others,  perhaps  the 
crafty  machinations  of  foreigners,  and  the  impertinent 
self-conceit  of  the  majority,  resulted  in  the  confusion  in 
which  we  all  now  find  ourselves. 

Because,  while  the  Northern  States  were  making  power- 
ful efforts  to  overcome  the  Southern  States  in  the  Halls 
of  Congress,  this  being  a  terrible  threat  against  the  man- 
orial property  of  the  wealthy  planters,  while  the  South- 
ern States,  knowing  the  danger  which  threatened  their 
legitimate  interests,  were  speaking  of  the  disruption  of 
the  Union  as  the  only  means  of  saving  themselves;  while 
any  one  possessed  of  common  sense  could  foresee  what 
was  about  to  happen;  and  the  future  filled  all  loyal 
minds  with  horror,  the  philanthropic  abolition  societies 
did  not  scruple  openbf.to  make  known  their  exertions  in 
their  dicourses,  making  new  exactions  from  all  nations 
and  preaching  their  doctrines,  with  the  greatest  solemnity, 
in  places  where  the  greatest  harm  would  naturally  ensue. 

While  the  scenes  which  were  plotted  in  darkness  and 
terminated  in  bloodshed,  were  being  enacted  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  to  be  followed  ere  long  by  a  far  greater  and  more 
terrible  drama,  the  efforts  to  increase  the  number  of 
cruisers  of  the  nations  interested  in  the  prohibition  of  the 
slave  trade  were  redoubled,  and  the  most  vehement  and 
injurious  words  were  uttered  by  an  English  Minister  in 
Parliament  against  slavery  and  against  all  nations  which 
maintained  the  institution  of  organized  labor.  And  as 
the  South  had  been  exasperated  to  an  iuconceivable  extent 
by  all  these  causes  combined,  each  of  which  would  in 
itself  have  sufficed  to  bring  about  the  dreaded  and  already 
inevitable  disruption,  in  a  case  where  prudence  should 
have  been  consulted,  passion,  upheld  by  legality,  held  its 

(1)1  here  refer  to  several  publications  of  mine  on  the  American  ques- 
tion, in  all  of  which  will  be  found  that,  in  1851,  I  foretold  that  in  ten 
years  the  great  collision  between  the  North  and  South  would  take  place, 
resulting  in  the  political  separation  of  the  two  sections. 


» 


219 

sway  ;  and  where  the  expulsion  or  imprisonment  of  some 
turbulent  individuals  would  have  sufficed,  the  life  of  an 
aged  man  was  unhesitatingly  aud  wantonly  sacrificed.  A 
lamentable  circumstance  by  which  false  philanthropy  was 
enabled  to  influence  the  feelings  of  truly  benevolent  per- 
sons, _and  which  was  solemnized  by  excited  multitudes 
with  funeral  pomp  and  sacrilegious  comparisons  ! 

A  periodical  of  New  York,  La  Cronica,  in  its  issue  of 
the  9th  of  December,  1859,  contains  the  following: 

"  The  Consequences  of  the  Death  of  Brown. 

"  Our  readers  are  already  aware  that  on  the  2d  instant, 
John  Brown,  the  unfortunate  leader  of  the  insurrection  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  suffered  the  penalty  of  deatk  by  hanging. 
We  think  it  expedient  to  say  something  upon  the  effects 
which  have  been  produced  in  all  the  country,  and  more 
especially  in  the  Northern  States,  by  the  severe  penalty 
imposed  upon  a  man  who  personified,  as  it  were,  the  polit- 
ical ideas  and  social  aspirations  of  a  great  portion  of  the 
Union.  And  we  think  it  all  the  more  opportune,  as 
society  at  large  has  agreed  not  to  consider  this  as  an 
isolated  and  unimportant  act,  but  rather  as  one  of  those 
events  of  great  political  significance,  which  serves  to  for- 
ward a  cause  in  one  day  more  than  it  would  otherwise 
have  been  forwarded  in  several  years  unmarked  by  such 
extraordinary  occurrences. 

"  Hardly  had  the  telegraph  announced  the  death  of 
Brown  to  all  the  cities  of  the  North,  than  public  demon- 
strations of  sorrow  and  even  indignation  be2;an  to  be 
evinced  on  all  sides.  In  this  city  some  of  the  churches 
were  kept  open  from  ten  to  twelve  (the  hour  of  execution) 
with  the -purpose  of  celebrating  solemn  religious  services 
for  the  soul  of  Brown.  Sermons  were  preached  in  which 
comparisons  were  repeatedly  drawn  between  Brown  and 
the  apostle  and  martyr  St.  Stephen,  and  God  was  fervently 
prayed  to  cause  the  death  of  this  new  martyr  to  redound 
in  favor  of  the  slaves.  In  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Man- 
chester, Syracuse,  etc.,  etc.,  meetings  were  held,  in  which 
some  Protestant  ministers  and  distinguished  men  pro- 
nounced discourses  upon  the  events  of  the  day.  The 
bells  of  the  City  Hall,  and  of  several  churches  were  tolled 
for  the  space  of  two  hours.  In  both  assemblies  of  the 
Legislature   in    Massachusetts    it   was    resolved    not     to 


220 

hold  the  session  upon  that  day,  and  it.  can  be  said  that 
all  the  North  unanimously  agreed  in  solemnly  protesting 
against  the  death  of  the  man  whom  they  qualified  as  a 
martyr  to  liberty,  and  against  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Wise, 
Governor  of  Virginia,  whom  a  Boston  orator  styled  the 
modern  Pontius  Pilate. 

IC  The  cry  of  indignation  sent  forth  by  the  North,  has 
loudly  resounded  in  the  South,  adding  fresh  motives  for 
the  excitement  of  the  inhabitants  who  can  no  longer  re- 
strain  the  rage  with  which  they  are  inspired  by  what  they 
call  the  aggression  against  their  legitimate  rights.  As 
usual,  they  have  already  threatened  to  dissolve  the  Confe- 
deration, peremptorily  informing  the  North  that  the  time 
of  the  dreaded  crisis  has  arrived  ;  that  the  fate  of  the 
Union  hangs,  so  to  say,  upon  a  single  thread,  and  that 
to  prevent  its  breaking,  the  co-operation  of  all  the  different 
parties  in  the  Union,  both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South, 
is  needed. 

"  The  North,  on  its  part,  is  cognizant  of  the  imminence 
of  the  danger,  and  seems  to  be  disposed  now,  as  upon 
other  occasions,  to  make  new  concessions,  in  order  to  save 
that  Union  from  which  is  derived  the*  strength  of  both 
sections  of  the  country.  The  most  sensible  portion  of  this 
population  prudently  endeavors  to  calm  the  irritation  of 
the  Southern  slaveholders  ;  hence  the  fact  that  a  meeting 
has  been  called  in  this  city,  at  which  it  may  be  publicly  , 
declared  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  North  sympathise 
with  those  of  the  South  in  the  present  circumstances,  and  > 
that  they  openly  condemn  the  conduct  of  John  Brown 
and  his  accomplices,  as  well  as  the  dangerous  theories 
which  some  persons  are  endeavoring  to  inculcate  in  the 
minds  of  the  populace.  All  this  shows  that  the  danger  * 
has  been  acknowledged,  and  that  efforts  will  be  made  to 
'avert  it  ;  but  moderate  men  have  to  battle  at  every  step 
against  the  inconsiderate  tendencies  of  the  abolitionists, 
who,  being  attacked  in  the  person  of  John  Brown,  and 
threatened,  for  the  future,  by  the  Southern  publications, 
are  anxious  to  revenge  the  outrage  already  suffered,  and 
to  avoid  any  others  that  may  be  attempted.  In  the  • 
meantime,  exasperation  and  rancor  are  ever  on  the  in- 
crease, the  spirit  of  sectionalism  is  daily  more  and  more 
aroused,  and  as  the  idea  of  an  approaching  political  dis- 
ruption becomes  more  and  more  familiar  the  greater  also 
is  the  probability  of  its  taking  place. 


V 


221 

"  The  far-seeing  prudence  and  good,  sense  of  a  portion 
of  the  Northern  people,  will,  no  doubt,  greatly  contribute 
to  the  lulling  of  the  storm  ;  but,  can  such  an  anamalous 
situation  be  indefinitely  prolonged  ?  Will  a  remedy  be 
at  length  found  for  so  strong  and  threatening  an  antagon- 
ism ?  This  is  the ,  great  problem,  upon  the  solution  oi 
which  depends,  the  existence  of  this  Bepublic." 

It  is  very  rarely  that  we  find  expressed,  in  so  brief  apd 
lucid  a  manner,  the  preamble  to  such  extraordinary  and 
transcendental  events  as  have  since  come  to  pa^ss,'  and 
which  were  foreseen  and  pointed  out  in  the  preceding 
article. 

The  solution  of  the  problem  was  only  deferred  long 
enough  to  enable  the  minds  already  divided,  and  respec- 
tively confirmed  in  their  antithetical  opinions,  to  form 
their  plans  of  action,  in  order  to  meet  on  the  field  of 
battle. 

And  what  else  could  be  expected  when  sophistry  had 
made  every  effort  to  stifle  the  voice  of  reason,  before  which 
the  immense  interests  which  had  been  called  in  question 
might  plead  their  legitimate  rights  ? 

At  the  time  when  La  CVonica,  of  New  Y.ork,  expressed 
itself  in  the  above  mentioned  terms,  in  all  the  territories 
in  which  property  was  menaced,  the  most  violent  passions 
were  laboring  towards  the  accomplishment  of  disruption. 
And  that  these  passions  may  be  better  estimated  by  their 
own  demonstrations,  as  they  really  were,  rather  than 
through  a  defective  description,  my  readers  will  allow  me 
toinsert  a  few  paragraphs  from  several  speeches  made  by 
the  Governors  in  the  South  before  the  Legislative  assem- 
blies of  their  respective  States,  relative  to  the  events 
which  had  occurred  .until  the  death  of  Brown,  and  to  those 
which  were  preparing  to  follow. 

In  Virginia,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  which  the  insur- 
rectionists of  Harper's  Ferry  were  sentenced,  Mr.  Wise,  who 
was  called  by  the  Northerners  the  modern  Pontius  Pilate, 
because  as  Governor  of  the  State  he  punctually  and  faith- 
fully fulfilled  the  painful  duty,  which  the  general  interests, 
of  the  people  imposed  upon  him,  was  the  one  who  most 
energetically  set  forth  the  difficult  state  of  affairs  during 
those  awful  moments.  His  message  gave  a  detailed  ac- 
.  count  of  all  the  facts  relative  to  the  insurrection  ;  and  in 
speaking  of  the  fanaticism  which  swaved.the  abolitionists, 


222 

he  said  that  it  was  hy  it  that  the  judgment  of  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Republic  had  been 
perverted,  to  such  an  extent  that  it  became  the  basis  of 
their  religion,  of  their  political  principles,  of  their  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  of  their  public  and  private  actions, 
and,  in  fine,  of  their  whole  existence  ,  this  fanaticism 
being  the  result  of  the  education  of  thr^e  successive  gener- 
ations. 

He  then  went  on  to  say*  "  It  the  majority  does  not  cease 
violating  the  good  faith  sworn  to  the  Confederation,  dis- 
turbing our  peace,  destroying  our  lives  and  our  property, 
and  depriving  us  of  the  protection  to  which  we  have  a 
right,  by  perverting  the  form  and  opposing  the  manner 
in  which  the  Union  should  be  preserved,  we  must  resort 
to  arms.  The  question  is  so  essential,  that  we  ought  not 
to  leave  it  endangered  any  longer.  We  cannot  allow 
outrages  similar  to  that  at  Harper's  Ferry  without  suffer- 
ring  a  fate  worse  than  death,  as  citizens,  and  the  dishonor 
of  perishing,  as  a  State. 

"It  cannot  be  denied  that  we  have  a  great  many  good 
and  sincere  friends  in  the  States  where  there  is  no  slavery, 
but  the  conservative  elements  are  passive,  while  those  of 
the  fanatics  are  active,  and  whilst  the  former  are  decreas- 
ing  the  latter  are  daily  increasing  in  number  and  in 
strength. 

"  We  must  depend  solely  upon  ourselves:  we  must  fight 
tor  peace,  we  must  arm  and  organize  ourselves,  we  must 
demand  that  each  State  shall  declare  its  intentions,  for 
the  future,  with  respect  to  slavery,  and  what  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  in  general  and 
of  each  State  in  particular,  have  established  for  its  pro- 
tection in  our  federal  relations;  and  we  must,  proceed  in 

accordance  to  the  answer  given.     We  are  now  in  arms 

Let  us  defend  our  position  or  else  abandon  it  at  once. 
Let  us  act  at  once  and  endeavor  to  effect  a  definite  ar- 
rangement. No  more  temporization  with  the  Constitution. 
No  more  compromises.  The  rest  of  the  convicted  insur- 
gents are  sentenced  and  shall  be  executed,  unless  the 
General  Assembly  resolve  to  the  contrary." 

The  same  spirit  of  resistance  and  disunion  was  evident 
in  the  speech  of  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina:  of  that 
State  which  many  years  previously  had  taken  the  initia- 
tive for  the  disruption  which  has  now  taken  place. 


\ 


223 

• 

"  In  order  to  be  prepared  for  any  emergency/'  he  said, 
"  I  would  recommend  you  to  adopt  at  once  such  measures, 
as  in  your  opinion,  may  be  neccessary  in  order  to  procure 
that  the  Southern  States  may  act  in  concert  for  the  defense 
of  our  institutions,  should  they  be  endangered  at  any  time 
by  our  government  departments  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemy.  The  election  of  a  Black  Republican  President, 
will  decide  the  question  of  our  security  in  the  Union;  and 
even  though  the  forms  of  the  Constitution  should  be 
observed,  its  vital  principle  will  nevertheless  be  extinguish- 
ed, and  the  South  will  have  to  consent  to  occupy  an 
inferior  and  degrading  position,  or  it  will  have  to  seek  a 
new  safeguard  for  the  future.  Let  South  Carolina  make 
all  possible  efforts  to  obtain  the  co-operation  of  the  South- 
ern States  in  this  movement  which  is  evidently  of  such 
vital  importance;  let  her  sacrifice  everything  except  prin- 
ciple, for  this  purpose,  and  prepare  herself  to  oppose  a 
determined  resistance  at  all  events;  without  for  a  moment 
forgetting  that  she*  is  a  sovereign  State  which  of  her  own 
free  will  entered  into  relations  with  the  Federal  Union, 
and  has  an  unquestionable  right  to  resume  her  independent 
position  in  the  family  of  nations." 

And,  finally,  that  we  may  not  have  to  waste  time  in 
examining  other  local  manifestations  when  a  single  in- 
stance will  serve  fully  as  well  to  show  the  universal  spirit 
which  prevailed  in  the  South,  let  the  reader  give  his  at- 
tention to  the  statement  of  an  American  traveller,  given 
in  the  New  York  Express,  after  a  lour  through  nearly  all 
the  Southern  States.  > 

"The  more  I  hear  and  see  in  these  parts,  the  greater 
becomes  my  dismay  respecting  our  future,  and  the  fear 
that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  avoid  what  would  be  the  great- 
est possible  calamity  for  our  country.  I  have  just  met 
with  a  strong  conservative,  one  of  the  most  strenuous  par- 
tizans  of  the  Union,  who  holds  high  position  in  the 
country,  and  has  just  arrived  from  New  Orleans,  via 
Alabama,  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  stopping  at  Mont- 
gomery and  Columbus  where  the  Legislature  is  congregat- 
ed. He  tells  me  that  in  the  entire  route  he  has  not  met 
with  a  single  individual  who  is  not  in  favor  of  the  im- 
mediate separation  of  the  two  great  sections  of  the  Kepublic 
and  the  formation  of  a  separate  Confederacy  among  the 
slave  States;  that  all  efforts  to  argue  on  the  subject  with 


224 

• 

the  inhabitants  are  useless,  as  they  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  all 
reasoning  or  argument,  and  that  for  the  first  time,  he 
almost  despairs  of  a  peaceable  arrangement  of  the  matter 
The  excitement  here  is  very  great,  and  if  perchance  we 
succeed  in  passing  this  crisis  in  safety,  it  will  be  due  only 
to  the  prudence  and  the  immense  efforts  of  the  moderate 
and  conservative  party.  As  a  proof  of«the  effects  produced 
here  by  this  state  of  affairs  I  must  tell  you  that  the  present 
value  of  landed  property  is  only  thirty-two  per  cent  of 
what  it  was  six  months  since,  and  this  is  only  in  anticipa- 
tion of  coming  events." 

Not  only  was  this  alarm  and  this  settled  and  universal 
antagonism  constantly  increased  by  the  demonstrations  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  the  meetings  in  the  Northern  States,  the 
untiring  efforts  of  foreign  diplomacy  and,  in  fact,  all  the 
elements  that  have  been  pointed  out  as  raging  previous 
to  and  since  the  death  of  Brown,  but  fresh  fuel  was  added 
to  the  flame  by  the  publication  of  an  abolitionist  work. 
Whether  this  book  was  written  with  premeditated  inten- 
tions of  provocation  we  know  not,  but  this  w&  can  posi- 
tively affirm:  that  it  helped  to  bring  about  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union;  for  the  author  taking  advantage  of  the  great 
excitement  among  the  enemies  of  slavery,  either  acting  on 
his  honest  conviction,  as  we  should  like  to  believe  in  honor 
of  the  press,  or  with  the  purpose  of  rapidly  making  a 
fortune,  as  was  conjectured  by  some,  in  which  case  he 
certainly  succeeded,  not  only  described  the  servitude  of 
the  negroes  as  being  the  worst  institution  to  be  found  in 
ancient  or  modern  history  but  he  also  succeeded^in  having 
an  official  motion  made  by  the  representatives  of  both 
Houses  at  Washington,  recomencling  the  work  to  the 
attention-of  the  -public,  in  the  same  manner  as  if  it  had 
contained  the  sacred  words  of  a  new  Evangelist. 

For  this  reason,  on  the  5th  of  December  1859,  when 
the  Congress  for  1860  had  not  yet  been  legally  constituted, 
Mr.  Clark,  a  zealous  representative  of  the  slave  States, 
entirely  devoted  to  the  Federal  Constitution,  presented  a 
proposal  tl\at  all  the  Representatives  who  had  made  the 
motion  in  favor  of  Mr.  Helper's  book  should,  for  that  act, 
be  excluded  from  eligibility  to  office.  As  was  to  be 
expected  from  the  spirit  which  pervaded  that  assembly, 
owing  to  the  events  which  were  at  that  time  taking  place 
in  the  Republic,  this  proposal  produced  the  contrary  ef- 


\ 


225  t ,, 

feet,  which  soon  became  seriously  evident  at  the  presiden- 
tial election  which  followed. 

The  provocative  sentiment  of  the  abolitionists  who,  in 
the  exclusiveness  of  their  doubtful  exigencies,  aimed  a 
death-blow  at  the  material  and  immense  interests  of  vast 
territories,  was  by  no  means  universal  in  the  North,  being 
in  a  positive  minority  in  some  of  the  States.  The  State 
of  New  York,  for  example,  wishing  to  be  free  from  any  re- 
sponsibility of  the  coming  events  which  now  plainly  ap- 
peared inevitable,  organized  those  sympathising  meetings 
alluded  to  in  La  Cronica,  in  the  article  herein  inserted  ; 
and  afterwards,  in  order  to  give  a  fuller  proof  of  its  atti- 
tude, in  the  election  of  its  rulers  which  was  to  take  place 
about  that  time,  by  nominating  Mr.  Fernando  Wood,  the 
greatest  friend  in  the  North  to  the  institutions  of  the 
South,  and  carried  his  election  by  an  immense  majority  of 
votes. 

In  fact,  the  returns  of  this  election  prove  that  it  could 
not  have  been  more  adverse  to  the  abolitionists,  nor  more 
favorable  towards  an  amicable  adjustment  between  the 
two  opposite  tendencies  which  were  on  the  point  of  rush- 
ing to  arms.  For,  as  Mr.  Wood  had,  on  account  of  his 
energetic  and  enterprising  character,  a  great  many  ene- 
mies as  well  as  friends,  the  cause  of  the  sympathizers  in 
that  election  was  divided  into  two  parts,  each  one  having 
a  different  candidate  ;  whereas  that  of  the  abolitionists 
was  united  in  the  unanimous  vote  for  one  single  indivi- 
dual. Notwithstanding  all  this  Mr.  Wood  obtained  thirty 
thousand  and  ninety-four  votes.  His  colleague  in  opi- 
nions, though  his  opponent  in  the  aspirations  for  office, 
obtained  twenty-six  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
three,  and  Mr.  Opdyke,  the  abolitionist  candidate,  only 
succeeded  in  securing  twenty-one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  eighteen.  Thus,  it  is  evident  that  the  conservative 
party  in  the  State  of  New  York  had  a  majority  of  over 
two- thirds. 

But  all  these  conciliatory  demonstrations,  all  the  efforts 
of  a  better  judgment  which  condemned  with  great  jus- 
tice, e  yery thing  in  which  an  aggressive  and  ruling  idea 
served  as  an  obstacle  to  peace,  were  defeated  in  the  final  re- 
sults; because,  as  Mr.  Wise  correctly  said  in  his  message  to 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  the  conservative  elements  are 
passive,  whilst  those  of  the  agitators  are  constantly  kept 
in  motion  by  the  impulse  of  their  fanaticism. 


226 

In  short,  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  President  of  the 
Republic,  was  the  signal  for  the  commencement  of  a  war 
of  extermination  between  the  two  sections  ;  for  the  South 
having  been  accustomed  to  have  the  ascendancy  in  the 
administration,  had  not  the  patience  to  suffer,  even  in 
anticipation,  its  first  electoral  defeat,  but  considered  it  in 
the  light  of  an  official  summing  up  of  all  the  former 
aggressions,  from  the  time  of  Brown's  insurrection,  and 
hastened  to  take  up  arms  against  ify  demanding  a  separa- 
tion ;  and  the  North  through  its  imprudence  being  now 
obliged  to  make  war  in  order  to  maintain  the  integrality 
of  the  federal  Constitution  according  to  the  laws  in  force 
in  all  the  States,  instead  of  appeasing  the  excitement  and 
dissipating  the  alarm  of  its  antagonists  by  means  of  con- 
ciliatory measures  that  should  above  all  have  respected 
the  interests  which  had  been  threatened,  it  continued  to 
attack  these  interests  in  their  basis,  at  first  only  occasion- 
ally and  unofficially,  though  always  under  the  influence  of 
abolitionist  tendencies,  but  afterwards  with  the  full  sanc- 
tion of  the  Government,  thus  destroying  every  chance  of 
a  peaceable  arrangement. 

The  22d  of  September,  1862,  will  always  stand  as  one 
of  the  most  calamitous  days  in  the  annals  of  the  great 
federal  Republic  ;  for  although  the  events  of  that  day  had 
been  foreseen  and  did  not  surprise  any  one,  owing  to  the 
symptoms  which  always  precede  any  important  measure, 
its  official  character,  nevertheless,  produced  the  effect 
which  was  to  be  expected,  closing  the  doors  on  all  legiti- 
mate adjustments  between  the  two  ideas  which  were  being 
sustained  with  such  fury  by  force  of  arms. 

It  is  useless  to  disguise  the  fact  that  the  proclamation 
issued  by  President  Lincoln  on  the  22d  of  September, 
1862,  against  the  clavery  of  the  negroes,  or  rather,  we 
should  say,  against  the  legitimate  property  of  the  rebel- 
lious provinces  (for  the  slaves  of  the  other  States,  which, 
were  faithful  to  the  federal  Constitution,  were  not  in- 
cluded in  the  said  proclamation),  instead  of  suppressing 
the  rebellion,  as  the  author,  with  evident  inexperience,  had 
intended,  was  the  means  of  infusing  into  it  additional 
vigor.  But  before  we  go  on  with  our  comments,  it  will 
be  well  here  to  insert  the  aforesaid  documents. 

The  first  says  thus  : 


227 

"Washington,  September  22,  1862. 

"  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  here- 
after, as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the 
object  of  practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation 
between  the  United  States  and  the  people  thereof  in 
which  States  that  relation  is,  or  may  be,  suspended  or 
disturbed  ;  that  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting 
of  Congress,  to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  prac- 
tical measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  accept- 
ance or  rejection  of  all  the  slave  States,  so-called,  the  peo- 
ple whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  and  which  States  may  then  have  volun- 
tarily adopted  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily  adopt  the 
immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  within  their 
respective  limits  ;  and  that  the  efforts  to  colonize  persons 
of  African  descent,  with  their  consent,  upon  the  continent 
or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously  obtained  consent  of  the 
governments  existing  there,  will  be  continued  ;  that  on 
the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  any  designated  part  of  a 
State,  the  people  ivhereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  shall  be  thenceforward  and  forever 
free,  and  the  executive  government  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and 
will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of 
them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  free- 
dom ;  that  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts 
of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof  respectively 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States  ;  and 
the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on 
that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  bv  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State 
shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof  have  not  been  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States. 

"  That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress, 


228 

entitled  i  An  act  to  make  an  additional  Article  of  War/ 
approved  March  13,  1862,  and  which  act  is  in  the  words 
and  figures  following : 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled,  That  hereafter  the  following  shall  be  promul- 
gated as  an  additional  article  of  war  for  the  government  oi 
the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be  obeyed  and 
observed  as  such  : 

"  Article. — All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military  or 
naval  service  of  the  United  States  are  prohibited  from 
employing  any  of  the  forces  under  their  respective  com- 
mands for  the  purpose  of  returning  fugitives  from  service 
or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due,  and  any  officei 
who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court  martial  of  violating 
this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from  the  service. 

Section  2. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act 
shall  take  effect  from  and  after  its  passage. 

"  Also  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  entitled 
?  An  Act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish  treason  and 
rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  property  of  rebels,  and 
for  other  purposes/  approved  July  17,  1862,  and  which 
sections  are  in  the  words  and  figure  following  : 

"  Sec.  9. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves  of 
persons  who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any 
way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  per- 
sons and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army,  and 
all  slaves  captured  from  such  persons,  or  deserted  by  them 
and  coming  under  the  control  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  slaves  of  such  persons  found  on  (or 
being  within)  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces  and  after- 
wards occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall 
be  deemed  captures  of  wau,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of 
their  servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

"  Sec.  10. — And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  slave 
escaping  into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of 
Columbia,  from  any  of  the  States,  shall  be  delivered  up, 
or  in  any  way  impeded  or  hindered  of  his  liberty,  except 
for  crime  or  some  offence  against  the  laws,  unless  the  per- 
son claiming  said  fugitive  shall  first  make  oath  that  the 
person  to  whom  the  labor  or  service  of  such  fugitive  is 


229 

alleged  to  "be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  has  not  been  in 
arms  against  the  United  States  in  the  present  rebellion, 
nor  in  any  way  given  aid  and  comfort  thereto  ;  and  no 
person  engaged  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the 
United  States  shall,  under  any  pretence  whatever,  assume 
to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person  to  the 
service  cS  labor  of  any  other  person,  or  surrender  up  any 
such  person  to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being  dismissed 
from  the  service. 

^"And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey  and  enforce  within  their  respective 
spheres  of  service  the  act  and  sections  above  recited. 

"  And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that 
all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have  remained 
loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion  shall  (upon  the 
restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation  between  the 
United  States  and  their  respective  States  and  people,  if 
the  relation  shall  have  been  suspended  or  disturbed)  be 
compensated  for  all  losses  by  the  acts  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

"In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"  Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  independence  of 
the  United  States  the  eighty- seventh. 
"By  the  President : 

"  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 

"  Secretary  of  State." 

After  this  proclamation,  the  first  day  of  the  following 
year  arrived,  and  as  the  promise  had  been  given  in  a 
solemn  manner,  and  the  rebellion,  instead  of  ceasing  as 
had  been  hoped,  had  increased  in  extent  and  power,  en- 
dangering the  constitutional  existence  of  the  loyal  States, 
in  order  not  to  undo  what  had  already  been  done  in  its 
aggressive  procedures,  the  supreme  magistrate  of  the 
nation  issued  his  second  proclamation,  in  the  following 
terms  : 

"  Whereas,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 


j 


230 

sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  containing,  among  other  things,  the 
following,  to  wit : 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  per- 
sons held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated  part  of 
a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  ingrebellion 
against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforth  and 
forever  free,  and  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof, 
will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons, 
and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons  or  any 
of  them  in  any  eifort  they  may  make  for  their  actual  free- 
dom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts 
of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  therein  respectively 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States  ;  and 
the  fact  that  any  State  or  the  people  thereof  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State 
shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof  a*e  not  then  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States. 

"  Now,  therefore,  I  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against  the  au- 
thority and  government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit 
and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion, 
do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  my  purpose  so  to  do  publicly  proclaimed  for 
the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day  of  the 
first  above  mentioned  order,  and  designate  as  the  States 
and  parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively 
are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States  the 
following,  to  wit : 

"  Arkansas. 

"  Texas. 

"  Louisiana — except  the  parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Plac- 


v 


231 

quemines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles, 
St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre 
Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.   Mary,  St.  Martin 
and  Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New 
Orleans. 
"  Mississippi. 
"  Alabama. 
"  Florida. 
"  Georgia. 
"  South  Carolina. 
u  North  Carolina  and 

"  Virginia—except  the  forty- eight  counties,  designated 
as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the  counties  of 
Berkeley,  Accomac,   Northampton,  Eliza- 
beth City,  York,  Princess  Ann  and  Nor- 
folk, including  the  cities   of  Norfolk  and 
Portsmouth,  and  which  excepted  parts  are, 
for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if  this  pro- 
clamation were  not  issued. 
"  And,  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  afore- 
said, I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves 
within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of  States  are  and 
henceforward  shall  be  free  ;  and  that  the  Executive  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and 
naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the 
freedom  of  said  persons. 

"  And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary 
self-defence  ;  and  I  recommend  to  them  that  in  all  cases, 
when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable  wages. 
"  And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  Such 
persons,  of  suitable  condition,  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States,  to  garrison  forts, 
positions,  stations  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of 
all  sorts  in  said  service. 

"  And  upon  this,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  jus- 
tice, warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  military  neces- 
sity, I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  and 
the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

"  In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  first  Vlay  of 
January,  in   the   year  of  our   Lord   one   thousand  eight 


232 

hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America  the  eighty-seventh. 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. ; 

"  By  the  President : 

"WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 

"  Secretary  of  State." 

The  importance  which  these  documents  have  towards 
the  end  which  I  propose  to  myself  in  writing  this  work, 
obliges  me  to  carefully  analyse  them  in  their  legal  founda- 
tions, and  in  all  the  points  of  real  transcendency  which 
are  therein  contained  or  which  may  result  from  them.  And 
since  it  was  for  the  sake  of  the  inviolability  of  the  federal 
Constitution  that  they  were  issued,  let  us  examine  how 
far  they  are  in  conformity  with  the  law  which  they  in- 
voke. 

The  political  federation  of  several  sovereign  States,  for 
such  is  the  real  nature  of  the  Union  constituted  among 
the  thirteen  States  which  declared  their  independence  of 
England,  and  those  which,  afterwards,  joined  the  said  Fe- 
deration, does  not  destroy  nor  injure  the  special  laws  of 
each,  as  these  are  absolutely  independent  of  the  Constitu- 
tion which  serves  to  bind  them  together,  guaranteeing:  their 
respective  rights.  This  principle  gains  two-fold  strength 
when  it  is  considered  that  all  attacks  made  against  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  in  the  slave  States,  which  is  protected 
by  their  respective  constitutions,  are  not  only  attempts 
against  the  integrality  of  that  bond  which  regulates  the 
harmony  of  the  Federation,  but  also  aim  a  deadly  blow  at 
the  interests  of  said  slave  States.  In  this  estimation,  the 
measure  proclaimed  by  the  executive  of  the  Republic,  on 
the  22d  of  September,  1862,  and  confirmed  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1863,  which  was  adopted  to  punish  the  attempt 
made  against -the  federal  Constitution  by  those  who  pro- 
claimed themselves  independent  of  it,  is,  to  say  the  least, 
as  unconstitutional  as  the  very  act  which  it  attempts  to 
punish,  and  therefore  lacks  the  moral  strength  which  would 
be  necessary  to  render  it  a  salutary  measure. 

The  suppositions  that  it  is  an  act  of  justice,  authorized 
by  the  Constitution  as  a  military  necessity,  will  not  be 
held  by  any  reasonable  mind,  since,  with  this  act,  the  ma- 
terial strength  of  the  federal  army  was  not  increased,  nor 
was  that  of  the  secessionists  diminished;  the  situation  of 


\ 


233 

the  ranks  in  the  former  was  not  bettered,  and  the  resources 
of  war  of  the  latter  were  not  destroyed.  Such  measures 
as  a  military  necessity  might  constitutionally  authorize, 
might  have  been  instituted,  such  as,  for  instance,  the  en- 
rolment of  negroes  as  soldiers,  wherever  the  authority  of 
the  President  could  be  enforced,  a  war  tax  levied  upon  the 
property  which  these  negroes  represent,  or  their  removal 
to  other  posts,  according  as  expediency  might  demand  for 
the  furtherance  of  military  operations. 

And  since  it  was  with  no  such  intentions  that  these 
proclamations  were  issued,  their  tendencies  ought  to  be 
considered  purely  political,  «and,  consequently,  contrary  to 
the  federal  Constitution,  in  defense  of  which  they  were 
dictated. 

With  equal  and  even  more  forcible  arguments  might 
this  measure  be  censured,  in  a  legal  point,  showing  incon- 
sistencies in  each  of  its  phases,  and  an  unlawful  proce- 
dure in  the  whole.  However,  as  this  is  not  a  part  of  my 
design,  let  me  proceed  at  once  to  consider  its  effects. 

What  were  the  intentions  of  the  Federal  Government , 
upon  issuing  the  first  proclamation? 

This  question  brings  up  a  thousand  others,  which  have 
been  decided  by  actual  events  in  the  most  unsatisfactory 
manner. 

Some  people  believed  that  the  South  would  become  dis- 
couraged by  the  proclamation;  as  if  the  history  of  the 
world  had  ever  presented  a  single  case  where  a  rebellion 
has  been  put  down  by  a  mere  threat  which  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  carried  out!  On  the  contrary,  it  merely  gave  an 
additional  proof,  to  the  wealthy  planters  of  the  South,  of 
the  pernicious  influence  which  the  abolitionists  exercised 
over  the  executive  power  of  the  Republic;  and,  as  this 
dangerous  influence  destroyed,  in  the  South,  all  desires  and 
even  all  hopes  of  a  constitutional  reconciliation,  the  said 
document  served  only  to  strenthen  them  in  their  spirit  of 
disunion  and  in  their  determination  to  organize  a  still 
greater  resistance.  For  this  reason  the  operations  of  the 
war,  from  that  time,  took  a  still  more  disastrous  aspect, 
the  army  of  the  South  having  been  reinforced  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  enable  them  to  make  powerful  invasions  into 
the  North,  and  to  make  protracted  defenses  in  their  forti- 
fications as  well  as  on  the  battlefield;  for  this  reason  the 
flattering  expectations  which  had  been  entertained  by  those 


234 

who  hoped,  in  good  faith  and  with  feelings  of  fraternity, 
for  the  submission  of  the  South,  have  since  then  been 
utterly  abandoned,  notwithstanding  the  brilliant  triumphs 
achieved  in  Pennsylvania  by  the  Northern  army. 

These  proclamations  did  not  even  serve  to  satisfy  public 
opinion  among  the  Federals,  for  I  have  already  shown  that 
the  majority  of  these  were  not  abolitionists. 

Thus  it  was  that,  on  the  appearance  of  the  first  procla- 
mation, so  much  was  said  against  the  government,  in  al- 
most all  the  papers  in  the  Union,  that  in  similar  circum- 
stances the  sentiments  of  opposite  factions  have  rarely 
agreed  so  unanimously;  and  this  was  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  proclamation  which  abolished  slavery  in  those 
regions  where  its  power  did  not  reach,  allowed  it  to  exist 
where  it  might  have  been  enforced;  thus  the  conservatives 
attacked  it  as  radical;  the  radicals  condemned  it  as  con- 
servative, and  everybody  considered  it  imprudent  and  use- 
less, with  the  exception  of  a  few  interested  officials. 

Even  if,  as  some  have  suspected,  and  I  believe,  these 
proclamations  had  been  issued  with  an  international  poli- 
tical end,  they  would  still  appear  unreasonable,  since  they 
did  not  resolve  anything  in  decided  terms,  and  consequent- 
ly were  not  admitted  as  useful  by  the  government  of  Great 
Britain,  as  they  might  otherwise  have  been.  And  the 
opinion  which  has  been  expressed  as  to  the  intention  of 
the  said  proclamation,  viz.:  the  prevention  of  the  national 
recognition  of  the  South  by  the  European  powers,  by 
flattering  England  through  its  abolitionist'  exigencies,  is 
not  founded  upon  slight  grounds,  being  confirmed  by  the 
English  ministry,  that  is  to  say,  by  a  dispatch  of  Lord 
Kussell  to  tlie  representative  of  that  nation  at  Washing- 
ton, which  is  written  in  the  following  terms: 

"  EARL  RUSSELL  TO  LORD  LYONS. 

"Foreign  Office,  January  17,  1863. 

"  My  Lord — The  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  enclosed  in  your  lordship's  despatch  of  the 
2d  inst.,  appears  to  be  of  a  very  strange  nature. 

"  It  professes  to  emancipate  all  slaves  in  places  where 
the  United  States  authorities  cannot  exercise  any  juris- 
diction nor  make  emancipation  a  reality;  but  it  does  not 
decree  emancipation  of  slaves  in  any,  States  or  parts  of 
States  occupied  by  federal  troops,  and  subject  to  United 


235 

States  jurisdiction,  and  where,  therefore,  emancipation,  if 
decreed,  might  have  been  carried  into  effect. 

"It  would  seem  to  follow  that  in  the  border  States,  and 
also  in  New  Orleans,  a  slave  owner  may  recover  his  fugi- 
tive slave  by  the  ordinary  process  of  law,  but  that  in  the 
ten  States  in  which  the  proclamation  decrees  emancipa- 
tion, a  fugitive  slave  arrested  by  legal  warrant  may  resist, 
and  his  resistance,  if  successful,  is  to  be  upheld  and  aided 
by  the  United  States  authorities  and  the  United  States 
armed  forces. 

"  The  proclamation,  therefore,  makes  slavery  at  once 
legal  and  illegal,  and  makes  slaves  either  punishable  for 
running  away  from  their  masters,  or  entitled  to  be  sup- 
ported and  encouraged  in  so  doing,  according  to  the  local- 
ity of  the  plantation  to  which  they  belong,  and  the  loyalty 
of  the  State  in  which  they  may  happen  to  be. 

"  There  seems  to  be  no  declaration  of  a  principle  ad- 
verse to  slavery  in  this  proclamation.  It  is  a  measure  of 
war,  and  a  measure  of  war  of  a  very  questionable  kind. 

"As  President  Lincoln  has  twice  appealed  to  the  judg- 
ment of  mankind  in  his  proclamation,  I  venture  to  say  I 
do  not  think  it  can  or  ought  to  satisfy  the  friends  of  abo- 
lition, who  look  for  total  and  impartial  freedom  for  the 
slave,  and  not  for  vengeance  on  the  slave  owner. 

"  I  am,  etc.  Russell." 

In  order  to  demonstrate  how  unanimous  were  the  sen- 
timents entertained  by  everybody  with  respect  to  the  in- 
consistency contained  in  the  proclamations,  and  exposed 
in  the  foregoing  dispatch  of  Lord  John  Russell,  I  ought 
to  mention  that  one  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the 
South,  universally  renowned  for  his  great  talents  and 
public  character,  said  in  answer  to  various  consultations 
of  mine  upon  the  subject,  what  I  here  copy: 

"As  to  the  antagonism  manifested  between  the  South- 
ern and  Northern  States,  allow  me  to  observe  that  slavery 
has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  disagreements  which 
have  given  place  to  the  furious  contest  resulting  from  it. 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  rapid  progress  made  in  the 
Northern  States,  in  their  population  and  industry,  are  due 
only  to  the  extraordinary  ingress  of  foreigners,  who  are 
attracted  to  its  soil  by  the  advantages  afforded  by  its  po- 
litical institutions  and  the  prospects  afforded  by  its  bound- 


236 

less  territories.  Nevertheless,  while  these  States  were 
thus  increasing  in  power  and  influence  in  the  councils  of 
the  nation,  they  also  began  to  unfold  a  tendency  to  oppress 
the  weaker  States,  and  to  monopolize,  exclusively,  the  ad- 
vantages accrueing  from  the  federal  mechanism,  entirely 
disregarding  the  interests  and  rights  of  the  latter,  while 
their  arrogance  and  oppression  ever  increased,  until  the 
abuses  and  exactions  arising  from  them  became  so  intol- 
erable, that  the  only  resource  left  to  the  Southern  States 
was  to  revolt  against  them,  claiming  a  separation  from, 
and.  an  independence  of,  a  Union  which  denied  them  an 
equal  participation  in  the  common  advantages. 

"  The  violence  done  to  the  federal  Constitution  by  the 
Northern  States  is  what  has  sundered  the  links  which 
bound  them  to  the  South.  Let  it  not  be  said  that  the 
slave  question  is  at  all  involved  in  the  gigantic  struggle 
carried  on  between  the  South  and  the  North. 

"As  a  proof  against  this  supposition,  see  how  the  South 
willingly  sacrifices  slavery  and  slaves,  rather  than  submit 
to  the  Northern  yoke,  when  the  latter  guarantees  both  to 
them,  in  case  of  their  submission;  whilst  the  North, which 
is  so  ready  to  liberate  the  slaves  who  are  not  in  their  do- 
minion, encourages  with  the  prospect  of  continued  slavery 
the  loyalty  of  the  States  where  the  federal  authority  still 
prevails." 

I  think  that  the  illustrious  republican,  whose  name  I 
withhold,  very  much  against  my  will,  as  I  am  not  author- 
ized to  publish  it,  is  mistaken  in  his  idea  that  the  slave 
question  is  not  connected  with  the  war,  as  this  idea  might 
be  triumphantly  combated  with  what  has  already  been 
said  relative  to  the  mechanism  of  the  Federation,  by  which 
each  State  makes  its  own  laws,  independent  of  the  rest, 
and  with  facts  and  antecedents  which  are  publicly  and 
universally  known.  Perhaps,  since  the  issuing  of  the 
proclamations,  which,  instead  of  reconciling,  have  been 
the  means  of  further  disuniting  the  two  sections,  which 
were  engaged  in  a  furious  struggle  owing  to  the  slave 
question,  the  South  has  decided  to  give  to  their  cause  a 
force  and  an  aspect  quite  foreign  to  the  original  question ; 
as  was  correctly  exjDlained  by  Lord  Lyons  to  Lord  Eussell 
in  a  despatch  dated  Washington  the  13  th  of  January, 
saying:  "  The  emancipation  proclamation  has  disgusted 
many,  has  made  still  more  doubtful  the  possibility  of  any 


237 

other  result  to  the  war,  whenever  it  may  end,  than  sepa- 
ration." It  is  evident  that  we  cannot  avoid  the  slave 
question  if  we  wish  to  bring  up  the  antecedents  of  the 
war,  or  to  establish  the  foundation  of  a  solid,  just  and 
lasting  peace. 

For  the  rest,  I  may  add  that  the  aforesaid  letter  was 
written  in  Havana  on  the  25th  of  January  1863,  that  is 
to  say,  eight  days  after  the  despatch  of  Lord  John  Russell 
to  the  English  Minister  at  Washington;  and,  consequent- 
ly, the  ideas  expressed  in  one  could  not  have  been  copied 
from  the  other,  unless  we  might  suppose  a  suspicious  un- 
derstanding to  exist  between  the  most  influential  persons 
of  the  South  and  the  Government  of  Great  Britain. 

If  some  regard  be  had  to  these  explanations,  which 
justify  the  responsibility  attributed  to  the  abolitionists, 
of  being  the  promoters  of  the  civil  war  which  is  destroy- 
ing this  nation,  and  also  a  brief  analysis  of  the  great  dis- 
asters suffered  by  this  same  nation  in  all  its  public  phases, 
since  the  unfortunate  insurrection  at  Harper's  Ferry,  the 
great  statesmen  and  potentates  of  the  world  will  have  to 
be  very  careful  to  ultimately  resolve  .the  negro  question 
with  deeper  reflection  and  greater  caution  than  they  have 
yet  employed. 

Upon  this  very  ground,  now  the  bloody  theater  of  the 
most  horrible  tragedy  ever  presented  to  the  political  world 
with  the  attributes  of  war,  I  am  analyzing  this  question, 
the  fatal  legacy  bequeathed  to  the  New  World  by  civili- 
zation, I  know  not  whether  through  the  obstinate  philan- 
thropy of  a  celebrated  friar,  now  almost  deified  in  the  es- 
timation  of  the  unthinking,  who  undertook  to  secure  the 
indolent  repose  of  the  Indians  at  the  cost  of  the  slavery 
of  the  negroes;  or  on  account  of  the  climate  in  the  tropics 
of  the  Western  hemisphere,  which  renders  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil  impossible  to  any  laboring  agents  less  robust 
than  the  Africans.  I  am  hardly  able  to  enter  more  cir- 
cumstancially  into  this  analysis,  although  I  am  not  natur- 
ally faint  hearted;  and  were  I  to  give  the  results  of  the 
analysis  with  mathematical  exactness,  they  would  un- 
doubtedly overwhelm  the  mind  of  the  reader,  and  cause 
him  to  shun  the  sight  of  these  lines  with  horror. 

It  is  undoubtedly  for  this  cause,  which  is  in  itself  justi- 
fiable owing  to  the  respect  due  to  public  sentiment,  even 
though  it  may  be  prejudicial  to  historical  exactness,  that 


238 

all  writers  who  have  wished  briefly  to  demonstrate  the  in- 
juries caused -by  this  great  question,  have  touched  upon 
the  subject  very  lightly  and  with  faint  coloring.  It  is  also 
for  this  reason  that  I,  concealing  all  violent  emotions  in 
order  not  to  transmit  them  to  others,  will  avail  myself, 
firstly,  of  other  expositions  which  are  certainly  worthy  of 
credit,  coming,  as  we  will  presently  show,  from  interested 
parties;  after  which  I  will,  with  the  promised  circumspec- 
tion, give  some  numerical  data  which  I  have  myself  col- 
lected. 

"  THE    AWFUL    CONDITION    OF    THE    COUNTRY. WHO   ARE 

RESPONSIBLE? 

"  Three  years  ago  this  country  was  the  envy  of  the 
world.  Thirty  millions  of  people  of  all  classes,  condi- 
tions, religions  and  nativities  were  living  happily  together 
under  the  freest  government  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  poor  and  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  found  a  refuge 
upon  our  shores.  Our  flag  was  known  and  respected  in 
every  land  and  on  every  sea.  Our  commerce  bore  to  dis- 
tant climes  the  products  of  our  soil  and  of  our  manufac- 
tures, and  brought  us  in  exchange  all  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  we  could  desire.  To  be  an  American  citizen  was 
so  great  an  honor  that  even  the  aristocrats  of  Europe 
showed  us  especial  favors  and  treated  our  representatives 
with  distinguished  consideration.  We  had  just  sent  France 
her  Emperor,  and  Italy  her  Liberator,  after  having  receiv- 
ed and  protected  these  illustrious  exiles.  The  future  King 
of  England  had  visited  us  to  see  for  himself  the  supreme 
greatness  and  happiness  of  a  free  people  under  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own  choice.  Peace,  contentment  and  pros- 
perity at  home — admiration,  envy  and  honor  abroad — in 
these  words  is  pictured  the  condition  of  the  United  States 
three  years  ago. 

"  To-day  one  half  the  country  is  in  rebellion  against  the 
government.  Three  hundred  thousand  American  soldiers 
are  arrayed  against  each  other  around  the  national  capital. 
The  loyal  armies  are  destroying  public  and  private  pro- 
perty at  the  South,  and  the  rebel  armies  are  invading  and 
devastating  the  North.  The  flames  of  burning  towns  and 
villages  are  answered  by  the  red  glare  of  burning  ships. 
Our  commerce  is  almost  totally  destroyed,  and  what  is 
left  of  it  has  abandoned  our  flag  and  sought  safety  beneath 


239 

the  British  ensign.  Rebel"  pirates  infest  the  seas,  ravage 
our  coasts  and  dare  to  enter  our  harbors.  Fifty  millions 
of  dollars  worth  of  property  was  destroyed  or  captured  in 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  last  week,  and  our  losses 
elsewhere  are  double  that  sum.  Thousands  of  brethren 
who  lived  in  amity  and  peace  three  years  ago  have'  since 
been  slain  by  fratricidal  hanfls  and  now  sleep  beneath  the 
sod.  The  national  currency  has  depreciated  until  gold  is 
at  an  enormous  premium.  The  necessaries  of  life  com- 
mand extravagant  prices.  Our  manufactures  have  ceased 
almost  entirely  in  some  sections  of  the  country,  and  in 
others  are  kept  in  feverish  activity  only  by  the  demands 
of  the  war.  In  one  of  our  largest  cities  business  is  sus- 
pended that  the  citizens  may  arm  to  meet  the  rebel  inva- 
sion. Peculation,  embezzlement  and  corruption  are  riot- 
ing in  official  circles.  A  few  hundred  of  men  without 
souls  are  becoming  amazingly  rich,  while  the  masses  of  the 
people  suffer.  Our  statesmen  have  degenerated  into  scheme- 
ing,  thieving  politicians.  The  national  debt,  already  large, 
is  daily  and  hourly  increased  by  war  expenditures,  and 
knavish  hands  are  diligently  engaged  in  robbing  the  Trea- 
sury in  a  thousand  ways.  Such  is  the  awful  condition  of 
the  Republic.     Who  are  responsible? 

"  Thirty  years  ago  a  few  fanatics  began  the  agitation 
about  the  negro.  It  is  now  a  matter  of  history  that,  if 
this  agitation  had  not  occurred,  slavery  would  have  died  a 
natural  death  in  most  of  the  Southern  States,  as  it  did  in 
New  York,  New  Jersey  and  elsewhere.  These  fanatics 
came  originally  from  New  England.  It  was  believed  in 
olden  times  that  Boston  and  its  vicinity  was  under  the 
curse  of  God  for  its  Puritanical  persecutions.  With  this 
curse  the  New  England  fanatics  have  infected  the  nation. 
After  preparing  the  way  by  tracts,  lectures  and  sermons, 
the  abolition  faction  dragged  the  negro  into  politics.  The 
Southern  slaveholders  resented  this  attempt  to  deprive 
them  of  their  property.  The  extremists  of  both  sections 
joined  hands  in  the  infamous  work  of  dividing  and  des- 
troying the  country.  Through  its  successive  stages,  like 
some  foul  disease,  this  abolition  conspiracy  against  the 
Union  can  be  traced  by  the  impartial  historian.  All  sorts 
of  remedies  were  attempted;  but  all  failed,  because  they 
were  merely  temporary  and  did  not  aim  at  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  disorder.     The  great  men  of  the  nation  passed 


240 

away,  uttering  fearful  warnings  of  impending  danger.  At 
last  the  crisis  came.  A  set  of  unscrupulous  politicians 
gave  the  abolitionists  the  opportunity  they  desired,  and  a 
sectional  party  seized  the  reins  of  government.  Groaded 
to  madness  by  the  inflammatory  appeals  of  Southern  fire- 
eaters,  one  slave  State  after  another  left  the  Union.  The 
abolitionists  encouraged  and  applauded  this  movement  and 
trampled  under  foot  all  proposals  for  reunion.  Awed  by 
'the  patriotic  outburst  of  the  people  when  Sumter  was  at- 
tacked, the  fanatics  at  first  acquiesced  in  the  war  for  the 
Union;  but,  having  control  of  the  government,  they  soon 
managed  to  transform  the  contest  into  a  war  against 
slavery.  Led  on  by  Sumner,  Wade,  Wilson,  Chandler, 
Greely,  Cheever,  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips  and  other 
such  madmen,  the  abolitionists  rejected  all  means  of  con- 
ciliation and  endeavored  to  crush  out  every  spark  of  Union 
sentiment  at  the  South.  Their  threats,  speeches,  resolu- 
tions and  acts  of  Congress  at  last  culminated  in  emanci- 
pation proclamations.  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  torn  to  tatters.  The  South  was  united,  and 
the  North  divided.  Our  best  generals  were  removed  be- 
cause they  would  not  subscribe  to  the  abolition  creed.  Vic- 
tory then  left  our  banners  and  perched  upon  the  rebel 
standard.  The  war  is  no  longer  a  war  to  subdue  the  se- 
cessionists or  to  annihilate  the  slaveholders,  but  a  bitter 
struggle  for  the  existence  of  the  nation.  For  all  this  the 
abolitionists  are  responsible.  Their  leaders  still  walk  in 
high  places  and  fill  their  pockets  from  the  national  Trea- 
sury, and  their  journals  are  still  supported  by  official  pa- 
tronage and  government  contracts;  but  the  end  of  these 
things  is  at  hand.  Cowed  by  the  infernal  storm  they  have 
raised,  these  fanatics  now  cry  out  for  help  against  the  re- 
bel invasion,  and  preach  that  the  duty  of  the  hour  is  to 
forget  the  past  and  save  the  country.  This  delusive  call 
has  been  heard  once  too  often.  The  duty  of  the  hour  is 
to  remember  and  to  punish.  First,  let  the  rebels  be  de- 
feated and  driven  back,  and  then,  without  hesitation  or 
delay,  let  those  Northern  abolition  traitors,  who  are  res- 
ponsible for  the  rebellion  and  for  the  success  it  has  achiev- 
ed, be  held  to  a  strict  and  final  account." 

Thus  did  one  of  the  most  widely  circulated  papers  in 
the  United  States,  the  New  York  Herald,  express  itself 
a  short  time  ago,  when*  the  result  of  the  sanguinary  en- 


241 

counter  which  took  place  in  Pennsylvania,  in  July  1863, 
between  the  belligerent  armies,  had  not  yet  transpired. 
With  the  exception  of  the  references  to  political  parties, 
the  same  could  have  been  said  by  all  the  other  papers  in 
the  Republic,  since  such  is  the  true  state  of  affairs,  in 
whatever  manner  it  may  be  related. 

And  now,  entering  into  some  details  which  the  Herald 
purposely  omitted,  I  can  further  add,  with  official  data, 
that  the  "war  in  the  United  States,  at  the  aforesaid 
date,  had  already  cost  the  Republic  a  loss  of  nearly 
six  hundred  thousand  men,  who  died  on  the  battle 
field  and  in  the  hospitals,  to  which  number,  which  is  tru- 
ly awful  when  we  consider  that  it  consists  of  the  flower  of 
the  land,  the  youths,  who  are  most  needed  for  the  repro- 
duction of  future  generations  and  the  requirements  of 
labor,  we  must  add  two  hundred  thousand  men  who  have 
been  totally  disabled  by  wounds. 

Well  then:  estimating  the  population  of  both  sections 
of  the  former  Confederation  at  thirty  millions,  without 
taking  into  account  the  floating  population,  separating 
one  half,  which  are  females,  and  dividing  the  other  half 
into  three  equal  parts,  the  result'  will  be  five  millions 
of  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty,  which  are 
the  best  years  of  life;  and,  moreover,  supposing  that,  from 
the  beginning  of  July,  from  which  time  the  computation  is 
made,  until  March  1864,  which  will  complete  the  third  year 
of  the  war,  two  hundred  thousand  men  will  have  been  killed 
and  disabled,  that  is  to  say,  in  three  years  a  decrease  of  a 
million  of  men,  it  will  become  evident  that  in  so  short 
a  period  the  war  has  destroyed  twenty  per  cent  of  the  best 
citizens.  Add  to  this  the  decrease  in  the  population  from 
the  fact  that  foreigners  no  longer  come  here  to  be  natural- 
ized, and  many  of  those  who  had  already  settled  here 
have  repented  the  step  and  left  the  country,  as  also  from 
the  natural  diminution  of  births,  the  number  of  widows 
being  already  very  great,  and  this  fifth  part,  of  relative 
losses,  may  be  considered  as  positive  losses  so  soon  as  the 
estimates  shall  be  completed. 

As  man  is  the  originator  of  all  prosperity,  from  the 
estimates  made  of  the  population,  it  would  be  easy  to 
deduct,  in  a  proportionate  scale,  the  damage  to  public  and 
private  wealth,  if  it  were  not  that  the  immense  devasta- 


242 
*■ 
tions   of  the  war  do  not  allow  us  to  form  any  correct 
estimate.  , 

In  the  North  American  Republic  the  wealth  would  have 
decreased  one  fifth,  at  the  same  rate  as  the  working  popu- 
lation, for  the  want  of  these  last  in  the  productive  labors; 
if  it  were  not  that  to  the  million  of  men  killed  and  dis- 
abled, we  ought  to  add  another  million,  at  least,  of  men 
employed  in  the  war  and  who  consequently  cannot  work. 
That  is  to  say,  the  productive  forces  of  the  country  have 
lost,  in  the  space  of  three  years,  forty  per  cent  of  their 
original  importance,  there  having  been  no  standing  mili- 
tary force  before  the  war,  and  the  army  being  now  entirely 
composed  of  the  working  classes.  Besides  this,  let  us  add 
the  cities  which  are  in  ruins,  the  ships  laden  with  mer- 
chandize which  have  been  burned  at  sea  by  the  privateers^ 
the  railroads  and  magnificent  bridges  which  have  been 
destroyed  through  the  stratagetic  necessity  of  the  bellige- 
rent armies,  the  enormous  quantities  of  the  agricultural 
produce  which  have  been  destroyed  in  order  to  prevent 
their  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  invaders,  and  all  the 
accumulation  of  horrors  and  extermination  brought  on  by 
war,  and  then  we  will  see  how  bitterly  humanity  may 
lament  over  the  ruins  of  a  fertile  land  and  of  a  civilized 
nation,  the  short-sightedness  of  some  statesmen  and  the 
infamous  exactions  made  by  the  philanthropical  ideas  of 
a  criminally  fanatical  sect. 

From  the  slight  sketch  which  I  have  just  drawn,  (slight 
indeed  in  comparison  with  reality),  no  one  will  wonder 
that  the  official  revenues  of  the  Government  treasury  at 
Washington  should  have  decreased  in  an  incredible  man- 
ner. And  as  when  the  war  is  aggressive  it  cannot  be 
maintained  without  money,  though  it  is  very  different 
when  it  is  in  the  defensive,  for  then  privations  and  valor 
vie  with  each  other  with  strange  emulation,  which  effects 
wonders,  it  will  not  appear  surprising,  but  on  the  contrary 
very  natural  that  the  country  which  until  within  three 
years  enjoyed  unexampled  prosperity,  should  now  find  it- 
self on  the  brink  of  absolute  discredit. 

The  debt  of  the  Federal  Government  amounted  to  se- 
venty six  millions  and  ftne  hundred  thousand  dollars,  on 
the  7th  of  March  1861,  a  date  to  be  deplored  by  all  human 
sentiment,  not  on  account  of  Lincoln's  election  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic  having  then  take  place,  but  because 


\ 


243 

it  is  analogous  with  the  rupture  between  the  North  and 
South  of  the  Confederation  in  the  midst  of  the  clash  of 
arms.  From  that  date  until  the  30th  of  June  1863,  which 
is  the  termination  of  the  fiscal  year  acording  to  the  laws 
of  the  United  States,  that  debt  was  increased  to  one 
thousand  two  hundred  millions  6f  dollars,  making  it  six- 
teen times  greater  than  it  was  before;  and  as  the  estimates 
of  expenditures  as  well,  as  the  receipts  for  taxation  and 
other  sources  have  been  pretty  well  conjectured  for  the 
present  year,  the  minimum  of  the  federal  debt  at  the  end 
of  this  fiscal  year  can  be  ascertained  in  a  positive  manner, 
to 'be  no  less  than  two  thousand  two  hundred  millions,  or 
twenty  nine  times  greater  than  when  the  war  broke  out. 
From  these  figures,  which  represent  a  great  part  of  the  entire 
wealth  of  the  country,  arose,  as  might  well  be  expected, 
the  discredit  of  the  Government  funds,  and  although  the 
paper  money  which  represents  them,  has  fluctuated  from 
eighteen  to  seventy-two  per  cent  discount  on  the  value  of 
gold,  it  may  now  be  said,  to  have  settle  down  to  about 
half  or  a  little  more  of  its  nominal  value,  which  is  what 
the  official  credit  of  the  United  States  now  represents  in 
its  home  and  foreign  commerce. 

I  will  end  this  chapter  by  repeating  to  my  readers  the 
opinion  which  I  have  emitted  and  will  sustain,  that  the 
principal  cause  of  this  devastation  is  the  negro  question 
and  that  all  others  are  only  secondary. 

On  the  22nd  of  September  1862,  when  the  civil  war  in 
North  America,  had  lasted  a  year  and  a  hal£  the  paper  mo- 
ney of  the  Federal  Government  was  at  two  per  cent  dis- 
count for  gold.  The  first  proclamation  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
against  slavery  was  published  on  that  day,  and  from  that 
time  until  January  1863,  which  was  when  the  second 
proclamation  was  published,  the  paper  money  suffered  an 
extraordinary  depreciation  of  forty  two  per  cent ! 


/ 


> 


\ 


« 


\ 


CHAPTER  XL 


Anarchy  begins  to  manifest  itself  in  the  Northen  States. — Political 
parties  into  which  the  federals  are  divided,  and  the  principles  that  each 
profess. — Brief  sketch  of  their  respective  political  history. — Their  charac- 
ters in  the  present  war. — Dangerous  changes  produced  by  the  war  on  the 
public  customs  of  the  country. — Supremacy  of  the  military  over  the  po- 
litical institutions  of  the  Republic. — Famous  outrage  of  General  Burnside 
against  Representative  Vallandigham. — Commotion  produced  by  the  deed 
in  all  the  States. — Demonstrations  in  favor  of  peace  made  by  the  democrats 
to  check  the  progress  of  military  despotism. — Famous  meeting  in  New 
York  on  the  18th  of  May  1863.— Attitude  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  in 
favor  of  said  meeting. — Demonstrations  in  opposition  by  the  dominant 
party. — Means  of  which  the  government  avails  itself  to  annul  the  combi- 
nations of  the  partisans  of  peace. — New  treaty  with  England  concerning 
the  negroes. — The  invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pensylvania  by  the  confeder- 
ates coincides  with  all  that  has  been  said. — The  exasperation  of  the 
political  parties  of  the  North  in  presence  of  the  common  danger. — Triumphs 
of  the  federals  in  the  war. — Republican  meeting  in  opposition  to  the 
democrats. — Some  emisaries  of  the  London  Abolitionists  take  part  in  these 
irritating  demonstrations. — The  conscription  of  three  hundred  thousand 
men. — Reasons  why  it  was  decreed,  and  manner  in  which  the  interested 
parties  explain  it. — Riot  in  New  York. — Horror's  of  anarchy. — Horrible 
persecution  and  murder  of  negroes  as  a  natural  result  of  so  many 
aberrations. 


As  if  sufficient  disgrace  and  confusion  had  not  already 
been  brought  upon  the  moral  and  physical  elements  of  the 
world  by  this  question,  into  the  mysterious  intricacies  ot 
which  I  dare  not  at  times  penetrate,  wondering  if  it  has  not 
been  providentially  so  ordained,  to  perplex  our  minds,  con- 
fuse our  judgment,  involve  truth  in  darkness  when  it  ought 
to  shine  with  the  greatest  splendor,  and  in  fact,  to  turn  light 
into  shadow,  harmony  into  discord,  peace  into  strife,  and 
public  prosperity  into  ruins.  I  repeat,  as  if  these  dreadr 
fill  mistakes,  the  correction  of  which  has  been  submitted 
to  the  logic  of  arms,  thus  robbing  human  reason  of  one 
of  its  highest  attributes,  had  not  been  sufficiently  calami- 


246 

tous,  another  evil  still  more  disastrous  than  any  of  the 
preceding,  worse  than  war,  and  infinitely  greater  than  any 
scourge  which  God  has  inflicted  upon  his  creatures  since 
the  deluge,  anarchy  with  all  its  horrors  has  lifted  its 
head,  in  these  regions  of  North  America,  eager  for  exter- 
mination, and  originating  in  the  same  cause — the  negro 
question.     .     .     . 

Titus  Libius  said  some  centuries  ago: — "Nulla 
magna  civitas  dinquiescere  potest" — no  popular  city  can 
long  preserve  its  tranquility/" 

For  this  cause  Rome  perished,  and  Carthage  was  anni- 
hilated ;  Tyre  and  Sydon  disappeared  from  the  face  of 
the  earth  ;  Greece  fell  into  insignificance,  and  of  Sparta 
scarcely  a  recollection  remains  in  history.  For  this  cause 
the  people  of  Israel  became  Deicides,  lost  the  homes  of 
their  fathers,  and  were  scattered  as  wanderers  among  the 
nations  of  the  world ;  they  have  lost  their  original  faith, 
and  shall  never  be  reunited  as  a  nation.  Also,  for  the 
same  cause,  in  modern  times,  the  importance  of  the  em- 
poriums of  commerce— the  Levant,  Pisa,  Geneva  and 
Venice,  lost  their  glory,  and  from  the  summit  of  greatness 
fell  into  slavery.  And  scientific  Portugal  and  conquering 
Spain,  who  distributed  empires  east  and  west,  bounded  by 
conventional  lines,  were  in  their  turn  dismembered  and 
almost  divided  ;  for  such  in  this  world  is  the  natural  law 
of  things  among  nations  as  well  as  among  individuals. 
But,  although  the  same  was  to  be  expected,  some  say,  in 
this  gigantic  Republic  of  North  America,  because  ambi- 
tious and  eager  to  extend  its  dominions  it  wished  to  re- 
new the  times  of  Atila  on  this  continent,  invading,  like 
the  Scythians,  nations  of  other  races  towards  the  South, 
who  differ  from  them  in  their  customs  and  their  laws, 
still  no  one  could  have  imagined  that  the  hour  of  desola- 
tion had  already  arrived,  nor  could  the  most  experienced 
persons  conceive  the  idea  of  such  a  dreadful  chaos,  though 
they  may  have  anticipated  the  approach  of  a  local  disrup- 
tion which  was  liable  to  be  brought  about  on  account  of 
the  negroes. 

I  might  here  iake  up  the  relation  of  the  calamities 
which  the  abolitionists  have  brought  upon  magnificent 
centres  of  prosperity  and  upon  this  great  nation,  in  direct 

1 ' 

(1)  Lib.  Eod. 


V 


247 

opposition  to  the  sentiment  by  w]jich  they  are  actuated, 
but  I  will  not  offend  my  readers  by  supposing  that  they 
have  already  consigned  to  oblivion  the  facts  already  ad- 
vanced, which  undoubtedly  are  vividly  impressed  in  their 
memory.  Having  premised  this  explanation  I  shall  pro- 
ceed to  give  the  history  of  new  misfortunes  which  suc- 
ceeded those  already  mentioned,  and  venture  on  prophe- 
cies of  future  and  greater  calamities  if  peace  does  not 
speedily  heal ,  the  dangerous  wounds  which  threaten  to 
destroy  the  existence  of  the  social  body,  and  prevent  its 
complete  dissolution. 

And  as  such  a  narration  would  not  be  comprehensive 
without  some  illustrative  digressions,  the  reader  will  per- 
mit me  to  explain  several  antecedents  of  the  new  phase  of 
this  momentous  question,  in  order  that  he  may  know  to 
whom  to  attribute  the  responsibility  of  the  events  that 
are  now  transpiring,  and  draw  correct  inferences  there- 
from. 

The  Federal  Kepublic  has  been  divided  for  a  long  time 
into  two  parties,  each  one  being  composed  of  various 
opinions,  which  were  also  subdivided  among  themselves  ; 
and  it  is  said  that  this  difference  of  opinion  is  necessary 
to  secure  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  system.  One  is 
called  the  Kadical  Kepublican,  and  is  opposed  to  slavery ; 
the  other  is  the  Democratic  party,  which  has  reasonably 
conservative  tendencies,  and  to  the  latter  belonged  all  the 
political  men  of  the  slave  States. 

For  many  years  the  Democratic  party  controlled  the 
Administration,  selecting  at  will,  the  Presidents  of  the 
Republic,  and  having  always  a  majority  in  both  Houses  of 
Congress  in  their  interest.  Foreseeing  that  the  time 
might  come  when  the  official  preponderance  would  be 
transferred  to  the  other  party,  as  it  did  not  depend  upon 
material  but  upon  purely  political  interests,  which  are 
proverbially  unstable,*  the  Southern  States,  following  up 
the  absorbing  ideas  of  the  Democratic  party,  conquered 
Texas,  carrying  slavery  into  it,  attacked  Cuba  with  the 
intention  of  annexing  that  island,  because  slavery  existed 
there  also  ;  gained  over  the  good  will  of  a  portion  of  the 
Mexican  people  who  were  anxious  to  be  identified  with 
the  United  States,  and  even  desirous  of  giving  up  to  them 
some  of  their  large  territories  ;  and  lastly,  attempted  by 
a  clever  but  badly  executed  stroke,  to  implant  their  power 


248 

in  Central  America,  in  order  that  their  supremacy  might 
remain  unimpeached  and  that  their  control  over  the  ad- 
ministrative power  might  be  perpetuated. 

This  project,  as  was  to  be  expected,  failed  in  its  greater 
part  and  brought  upon  the  Republic  open  censure  and 
international  enmities;  which  were  more  or  less  concealed. 
And  as  the  conscience  of  honorable  people  ever  condemns 
the  calculations  of  aggressive  ambition  when  it  affects  the 
fame  of  a  country,  especially  if  said  combinations  prove 
unsuccessful,  the  Eepublican  party  had  at  length  the 
prospect  of  seizing  the  executive  power  as  a  matter  ol 
conscience,  in  order  to  put  a  limit  to  the  aggressive  ten- 
dencies which  caused  so  much  harm  to  the  external  credit 
of  the  country. 

I  will  not  say  that  insidious  counsels  were  permitted  to 
regulate  the  course  of  the  new  Administration,  for  as 
human  nature  is  ever  inclined  to  extremes  it  rarely  uses 
prudent  foresight  in  the  most  important  and  difficult 
circumstances  ;  but  it  can  truly  be  assured  that  while  the 
electoral  triumph  of  the  Republicans  favored  the  tenden- 
cies of  foreign  abolitionists,  their  proceedings  also  con- 
tributed in  an  immense  degree  towards  the  expansion  of 
the  principles  they  advocated,  and  to  the  fears  of  all  true 
Americans. 

Had  prudence  presided  over  the  acts  ot  the  new  Ad- 
ministration, nothing  would  have  been  easier  than  to 
establish  itself  favorably  in  public  opinion  and  consolidate 
its  power,  disapproving  the  external  enterprises  for  which 
the  Democratic  party  had  obtained  so  much  disfavor. 
But  whether  the  electoral  triumphs  elated  the  Republi- 
cans more  than  was  reasonable,  or  whether  some  secret 
enemies  wished  to  give  the  death  blow  to  the  Republic  by 
encouraging  its  anti-slavery  tendencies,  the  fact  is  that 
menacing  demonstrations  were  immediately  made  against 
the  defeated  party,  and  that  from  them  resulted  not  only 
civil  war,  but  the  most  inveterate  hatred  between  the  two 
factions,  while  all  peaceable  and  loyal  Republicans  sided 
with  the  Democrats. 

These  feelings  of  inveterate  aversion  were  neverthless 
suppressed  for  a  long  time,  for  the  safety  of  the  Republic 
within  the  bounds  of  the  Federal  Constitution  was  the 
common  aim  of  both  parties.  But  the  war  which  com- 
menced with  a  fury  which  could  not  possibly  have  been 


\ 


249 

foreseen,  (for  according  to  theories  which  have  now  proved 
falacious,  the  greatest  amount  of  public  liberties  produce 
a  proportionally  sound  civilization  which  makes  itself 
known  by  its  humanizing  instincts),  the  war,  I  repeat, 
which  was  commenced  in  such  a  cruel  manner  was  carried 
on  with  unceasing  vigor  until  it  became  intolerable  to 
humanity  and  to  policy.      • 

In  the  preceding  chapter,  in  statistics  which  overwhelm 
the  mind  with  horror,  there  are  corroborative  proofs  of 
this  truth,  although  they  are  not  the  only  ones  that  exist 
in  official  documents  and  in  private  accounts  which  will 
some  day  figure  in  history. 

When  it  is  said  that  during  three  years  of  civil  war,  one 
million  of  men  perished,  besides  more  than  a  hundred 
generals  on  both  sides, (1)  when  it  is  known  that  defence- 
less cities  have  been  reduced  to  ruins,  not  because  they 
resisted  the  invaders,  for  such  was  not  the  case,  but  be- 
cause they  belonged  to  the  enemy ;  when  it\is  read,  with 
scandal  to  all  moral  sentiment,  that  »the  conquerors 
'stamped  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  vanquished  with 
the  seal  of  prostitution,  in  their  private  acts  of  brutality, 
and  in  their  proclamations  which  they  issued  at  the  sound 
of  the  beating  drums/2  when  the  names  of  those  tyrants 
who,  disgracing  the  noble  insignia  of  military  authority, 
took  the  life  of  peaceful  citizens  in  reprisals,  and  admitted 
substitutes  for  execution,  drowning  in  blood  the  holiest 
family  affections,  are  brought  to  light  and  held  up  to 
universal  execration  ;  when  all  this  is  circumstantially 
published   and   true  Americans   blush   at  the  degrading 

(1)  According  to  the  data  taken  from  the  archives  at  Washington,  be- 
fore the  invasion  and  the  great  battle  fought  in  Pennsylvania  iii  July, 
1863,  the  federal  army  had  lost,  since  the  commencement  of  the  war, 
thirty-seven  generals  killed  in  battle,  or  who  died  from  wounds  therin  re- 
ceived. In  the  subsequent  engagements,  eight  more  generals,  also  of  the 
North,  have  been  killed.  Supposing  the  Confederate  army  to  have 
suffered  equal  losses  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  that  by  the 
completion  of  the  third  year  others  will  have  been  killed,  I  do  not  think 
the  computation  of  one  hundred  generals,  killed  in  battle,  will  appear 
exaggerated. 


"D»" 


(2)  Not  long  since,  in  September  of  1868,  an  enactment  for  the  enrol- 
ment of  soldiers  was  published  in  Arkansas,  in  the  following  form  : 

No  compromise  with  the  rebels  !  No  quarter  for  the  bushwhackers  ! 
Desolation  shall  tread  in  the  steps  of  treason  wheresoever  the  regiment 
may  march.  Up  to  the  work  of  death  !  Wat  Willis,  of  Louisiana,  wants 
one  hundred  men  who  can  live  on  half  rations,  and  are  willing  to  die  be- 
fore pay  day !     ,    .    . 


* 


f 


250 

charges  which  they  know  cannot  be  denied,  then  it  will  be 
seen  that  we  had  reason  in  denouncing  the  military  spirit 
which  has  been  fostered  by  this  war,  and  to  call  the  civil 
war  of  the  United  States  of  America  an  intolerable  evil  to 
humanity. (1 

And  that  it  is  not  less  intolerable  from  a  political  point 
of  view  in  a  country  that  has  ever  been  jealous  of  its 
liberties,  cannot  be  denied,  when  we  remember  the  history 
of  all  republican  nations  and  observe  the  course  of  events 
under  a  philosophical  aspect. 

I  can  speak  from  experience,  for  I  have  seen  in  the 
United  States  of  North  America,  individual  free-will 
which  heretofore  has  been  so  perfectly  unrestrained  and 
so  absolutely  independent  of  any  other,  repressed  bf  the 
narrow  limits  of  military  ordinances.  I  have  seen  the 
strict  enforcement  of  the  principle  of  passive  obedience  to 
the  voice  of  command,  which  however  indispensable  it 
may  be  to  maintain  discipline  in  armies,  is  extremely  dan- 
gerous to  the  liberty  of  nations.  I  have  seen  manufacto- 
ries converted  into  barracks  ;  workshops  into  parks  of 
artillery;  public  squares  and  markets  into  encampments, 
and  the  most  elegant  private  residences  into  guard  rooms, 
with  full  consent  of  the  owners.  From  these  transforma- 
tions in  a  society  which  was  once  pacific,  essentially  labo- 
rious and  industrious,  where  an  army  was  not  to  be  found 
on  this  side  of  the  frontiers,  and  even  there  in  very  insig- 
nificant proportions,  it  may  be  that  no  real  and  positive 
dangers  will  redound  against  the  institutions,  whether  the 
war  be  protracted  or  whether  it  be  terminated  before  the 
end  of  the  fourth  year.  But  besides  the  facts  which  I 
have  already  enumerated,  each  of  which  is  in  itself  a  polit- 
ical threat,  while  combined  they  constitute  an  eviL  which 
cannot  but  have  terrible  consequences.  I  have  seen  the 
organs  of  public  opinion  demanding  that  their  oponents 
shall  be  silenced — here,  where  the  liberty  of  the  press  has 
been  free  from  any  restraint.     ...  , 

Military  glory,  that  dazzling  delusion  which  serves  to 
conceal  the  real  horrors  of  war,  and  derives  its  lustre  from 
the  blood  of  its  victims ;    the  scourge  of  mankind,   be- 


(1)  The  author  of  this  book  was  born  in  Spain  when  the  civil  war  broke 
out  between  the  liberals  and  royalists  in  1820;  and  having  entered 
the  military  profession  in  1835,  he  enlisted  in  the  Queen's  troops  and 
made  a  campaign  of  five  years. 


V 


251 

qneathed  to  us  by  Cain,  the  opposer  of  science  and  pro- 
gress, and  the  mortal  foe  of  Christianity — military  glory, 
I  repeat,  is  now  rapidly  invading,  at  the  sound  of  drums, 
the  noble  hearts  of  free  men,  to  reduce  them  to  the  condi- 
tion of  slaves.  I  have  also  seen  in  the  most  populous 
cities  of  the  United  States,  ovations  such  as  were  offered 
to  Caesar  made  to  generals  who  had  been  but  moderately 
successful.  McClellan  has  been,  and  will  always  be  con- 
sidered of  transcendental  importance  for  the  political  good 
of  the  Eepublic  only,  because  he  has  ably  commanded  the 
military  hosts.  Meade,  who  a  short  time  since  was 
scarcely  known,  except  in  his  brigade,  has  already  been 
openly  designated  for  the  presidency  ;  not  because  he  has 
distinguished  himself  as  a  legislator  or  proved  himself  an 
excellent  Republican,  but  because  he  has  triumphed  over 
his  enemies  in  a  tremendous  battle,  on  three  successive 
days. 

And  thus,  considering  men  and  things  in  relation  to 
1  this  danger,  which  has  altered  the  appearance  of  so  many 
great  cities  preparatory  to  their  destruction  by  tyranny,  it 
will  not  be  wondered  at  that  when  the  despotism  of  camps 
openly  proclaimed  itself  and  endeavored  to  subdue  the 
spirit  of  the  citizens,  the  one  being  represented  in  the 
memorable  outrage  by  General  Burn  side,  and  the  other  in 
the  eloquent  words  of  Senator  Vallandigham, (1)  when  he 

(1)  In  order  that  these  facts  may  he  known  with  more  accuracy  with- 
out accumulating  them  in  the  body  of  this  work,  I  will  here  insert  the 
narration  of  the  case,  as  it  was  given  by  La  Cronica  de  Nueva  York  in  the 
following  paragraphs ; 

"  Public  attention  is  now  concentrated  upon  an  event  of  considerable 
importance,  the  result  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  foresee,  although 
almost  all  our  cotemporaries  are  of  opinion  that  it  may  welt  be  the  cause 
of  civil  war  in  the  North  itself.  It  is  known  that  General  Burnside  alter 
being  recalled  from  the  chief  command  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  was 
appointed  Commanding  General  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  he  soon  made 
himself  notorious  for  the  rigor  of  his  measures.  One  of  them  was  a  defi-. 
nite  prohibition  to  write,  speak  or  express  any  ideas  contrary  to  the  course 
taken  by  the  Government  or  the  acts  of  the  abolitionists,  under  penalty  of 
transportation,  imprisonment  or  death,  according  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  case. 

"  A  representative  of  Ohio,  Mr.  Clement  L.  Vallandigham,  a  strong  dem- 
ocrat, one  of  the  most  strenuous  champions  of  the  peace  faction,  and  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of  governor  of  his  native  state,  delivered  a  speech 
at  Mount  Vernon,  on  the  30th  of  April,  attacking  with  the  greatest  ve- 
hemence the  acts  of  General  Burnside,  qualifying  them  as  arbitrary  and 
impolitic.  This  was  violating  with  premeditation,  the  above  order,  ami 
said  General,  exercising  his  authority,  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  offender, 


252 

spoke  in  favor  of  the  peace  of  the  Republic,  the  most  far 
seeing  men  (I  will  not  say  the  best,  for  fear  of  giving 
offence  to  the  less  clear  sighted),  rose  up  at  once  and  unan- 
imously joined  in  protesting  against  that  outrage,  as  a 
forerunner  of  greater  ones,  being  as  it  was  a  declaration  of 
military  despotism,  the  legitimate  consequence  of  war,  the 
logic  of  camps  and  the  inevitable  result  of  an  authority 
constituted  upon  the  principle  of  blind  obedience.  While 
this  was  happening,  after  two  dreadful  years  of  exter- 
minating gloom,  during  which  any  word  in  favor  of  peace 
would  have  been  useless,  and  not  one  among  the  contend- 
ing parties  had  as  yet  dared  to  utter  it,  with  what  glorious 
satisfaction  did  I  consider  on  my  own  grounds,  the  prac- 
tical unfolding  of  the  budding  idea  which  had  controlled 
me  for  some  time  past,  which  I  emitted  in  conferences  oi 
almost  a  public  character,  defending  it  from  incredulous 
prejudices,  presenting  it  to  the  consideration  of  men  oi 
power  among  the  belligerents,  and  discussing  its  basis  in 
private  conferences. 

Oh  !  then  I  would  not  have  exchanged,  for  all  the 
wealth  in  the  world,  the  happy  anticipation  of  the  real- 
ization of  my  hopes  ;  because,  as  a  heavenly  reward, 
ward,  the  words  of  the  prophet,  "  How  beautiful  upon  the 
mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings, 
that  publisheth  peace  ;  that  bringeth  good  tidings  of 
good,  that  publisheth  salvation," (1)  resounded  in  my  ears. 

And  then,  considering  that  the  manifestation  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  public  sentiment  was  practicable,  I  also  be- 
lieved that  sooner  or  later  we  should  certainly  see  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy,  "  And  they  shall  beat  their 
swords  into  plowshares,  and   their  spears   into   pruning 

which  was  surreptitiously  carried  into  effect  on  the  morning  of  the  5th 
instant,  Mr.  Vallandigham  being  at  the  time  in  his  house  at  Dayton.  No 
sooner  did  the  friends  of  the  prisoner  become  aware  of  it  thah  they 
gathered  en  masse,  made  an  attack,  and  endeavored  to  carry  him  off  from 
the  midst  of  the  troops  but  were  unsuccessful,  and  Mr.  Vallandigham  was 
conducted  to  Cincinatti  as  a  criminal.  The  inhabitants  of  Dayton  then 
rose  up  in  revolt,  cut  the  telegraph  wires,  set  fire  to  the  office  of  the  aboli- 
tionist paper  of  that  city  and  other  buildings,  the  value  of  which  is  calcu- 
lated to  be  040,000,  and  destroyed  the  railroad  bridge  of  Xenia.  General 
Burnside,  on  his  part,  sent  troops  to  Cincinnati  and  Columbus,  declaring 
the  counties  of  Dayton  and  Montgomery  in  a  state  of  siege,  by  which 
measures,  together  with  the  arrest  of  thirty  of  the  ringleaders,  peace  was 
at  last  re-established." 

(1.)    Isaiah,  chap,  lii.,  ver.  7. 


253 

hooks;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  (1) 

But  let  us  return  to  the  narration  of  facts,  interrupted 
by  this  digression  caused  by  my  own  enthusiasm,  which,  I 
am  sure,  the  reader  will  understand  and  excuse;  the  outrage 
made  by  Burnside,  was  the  forerunner  of  serious  tumults 
which  were  then  inaugurated  on  a  small  scale,  and  which 
broke  out  later  with  unmistakable  symptoms  of  social  dis- 
solution, productive,  nevertheless,  of  inestimable  good, 
by  making  the  idea  of  peace  prevail  unanimously  in  the 
different  sentiments  which  had  been  variously  held  by  the 
people,  for  want  of  some  cause  which  should  harmonize 
them,  that  cause  being  presented  by  the  above  mentioned 
outrage.  For  in  most  of  the  Northern  States  distant  from 
the  seat  of  war,  and  especially  in  that  of  New  York,  which 
being  the  most  populous,  is  also  the  most  influential  in 
the  course  of  events,  large  meetings  of  the  democratic 
party  were  organized,  not  so  much  to  protest  against  the 
oppressions  of  General  Burnside,  as  to  demand  peace  at 
all  hazards. 

The  meeting  which  was  held  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
on  the  18th,  of  May,  1863,  is  of  immense  importance  for 
the  cause  which  is  vindicated  in  this  book  ;  but  as  a  min- 
ute narration  of  its  features  would  be  foreign  to  the  ends 
to  which  the  present  chapter  leads,  I  shall  confine  myself 
for  the  present  to  stating  that  more  than  thirty  thousand 
citizens  were  present,  who  adopted  the  following  reso- 
lutions : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  electors  and  people  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  who  have  hitherto  professed  the  name  and 
held  to  the  principles  known  as  democratic,  desire  to  de- 
clare their  unalterable  attachment  as  well  to  those  truths 
as  to  the  constitution  and  amendments  thereto,  forming 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  that  they  regard  obedience 
to  the  constitution  as  alike  the  duty  of  the  citizen  and  the 
magistrate,  and  regard  such  obedience  as  the  only  means 
of  perpetuating  the  Union,  and  by  it  the  only  hope  of  re- 
storing the  same. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  and  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  as  laid  down  in  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions,  of  which  Jefferson   and   Madison 


(1.)    Isaiah,  chap,  ii.,  ver.  4. 


254 

were  the  authors,  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
democratic  party;  that  they  are  the  vital  essence  of  the 
constitution,  pervading  every  line  and  provision  of  that 
instrument,  and  to  deny  them  would  reduce  our  political 
federative  system  to  anarchy  or  despotism.     (Cheers.) 

"  Kesolved,  That  under  the  constitution  there  is  no  pow- 
er in  the  Federal  Government  to  coerce  the  States,  or  any 
number  of  them,  byt military  force.  If  power  of  coersion 
exists  at  all,  it  is  a  legal  power  and  not  military.  That 
the  democratic  party,  if  true  to  its  own  time  honored 
principles,  cannot  sustain  a  war  against  sovereign  States  ; 
that  we  believe  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  party  to  proclaim 
these  sentiments  boldly,  that  the  people  may  feel  there  is 
at  least  one  political  organization  which  will  deal  honestly, 
independently  and  truthfully  with  them. 

"  Kesolved,  That  the  war,  in  its  inception  and  further 
continuance,  being  contrary  to  the  constitution,  must  ne- 
cessarily fast  consume  all  the  elements  of  union;  and  hence, 
that  our  duty  as  citizens,  our  obligations  as  men,  and  our 
relations  to  our  common  father,  alike  demand  that  an  end 
should  be  put  to  what  is  repugnant  to  the  law,  abhorrent 
to  the  humanity  and  civilization  of  this  enlightened  era, 
and  inconsistent  with  the  benignant  spirit  of  morality  and 
religion.     (Cheers.) 

"  Eesolved,  That  attempts  to  do  away  with  the  provisions 
of  the  constitution,  which  point  out  the  mode  in  which  all 
crimes  are  to  ■■  be  punished,  are  high-handed  violations  of 
the  sworn  duties  of  our  rulers,  and  that  the  participants 
in  such  a  policy  are  guilty  of  aiming  a  blow  at  the  very 
life  of  the  supreme  law. 

"  Kesolved,  That  the  claim  of  dictatorial  and  unlimited 
power,  under  the  pretext  of  military  necessity,  and  the 
trial  of  citizens  not  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the 
militia  in  actual  service,  by  courts  martial,  are  monstrous 
in  theory  and  execrable  in  practice.  (Applause.)  That 
it  is  equivalent  to  an  entire  abrogation  of  the  constitution 
and  the  erection  in  its  place  of  a  military  despotism. 

"  Kesolved,  That. the  dogma  of  unlimited  submission  to 
the  executive  branch  of  the  government  is  unworthy  an 
American  citizen,  and  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of 
constitutional  liberty, — (cheers,) — that  such  a  concession 
is  rather  suited  to  the  dark  and  sullen  era  of  feudal  despot- 
ism than  to  a  time  when  the  rights  of  man  are  regarded 


255 

even  "by  monarchs,  and  we  attribute  this  exhibition  of  ab- 
ject servility  as  dictated  Joy  a  spirit  of  fanaticism  bent  on 
effecting  its  object  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  personal  liberty. 
(Hurrah.) 

"  Resolved,  That  we  should  be  unworthy  of  the  name 
of  American  citizens  of  this  free  and  independent  State, 
claiming  the  first  rank  among  the  sovereign  components  of 
the  American  Confederacy,  if  we  did  not  protest  against 
the  cowardly,  despotic,  inhuman  and  accursed  act  which 
has  consigned  to  banishment  the  noble  tribune  of  the  peo- 
ple— the  Hon.  Clement  L.  Vallandigham — (Cheers,  the 
audience  again  rising  in  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  l  Three 
cheers  for  Vallandigham/  and  •  Three  groans  for  Burn- 
side/) — we  protest  against  it  in  the  name  of  liberty,  in 
the  name  of  humanity,  and  in  the  name  of  Washington. 
We  hope  the  people  of  Ohio  will  have  the  opportunity  of 
passing  condemnation  of  this  act  by  the  election  of  Mr. 
Vallandigham  as  the  next  governor  of  the  State.    (Cheers.) 

"  Resolveci,  That  thus  believing-,  there  can  be  no  reliable 
security  to  persons  or  property  pending  this  war,  and  that 
by  its  continuance  the  government  itself  will  be  utterly 
and  irrovocably  subverted,  and  that  the  South  as  well  as 
the  North  must  alike  crumble  into  general  ruin  and  devas- 
tation, we  recommend,  in  the  name  of  the  oeople,  that 
there  be  a  suspension  of  hostilities  between  the  contending 
armies  of  the  divided  sections  of  our  country,  and  that  a 
convention  of  the  States  composing  tne  Confederate  States, 
and  a  separate  convention  of  the  States  still  adhering  to 
Union,  be  held  to  finally  settle  and  determine  in  what 
manner  and  by  what  mode  the  contending  sections  shall 
be  reconciled,  and  appealing  to  the  Ruler  of  all  for  the 
rectitude  of  our  intentions,  we  implore  those  in  authority 
to  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason,  of  patriotism,  and  of  jus- 
tice.   (Cheers.) 

"Resolved,  That  to  the  end  that  our  principles  thus 
publicly  avowed  may  be  practically  carried  out,  and  that 
a  State  authority  emanating  directly  from  the  people  may 
exist,  to  call  any  future  conventions  of  the  peace  demo- 
cracy, if  it  shall  become  expedient  or  necessary,  and  dis- 
claiming any  intention  to  distract  the  democratic  organi- 
zation in  this  State  so  long  as  it  shall  reflect  the  sentiments 
of  the  masses,  the  following  named  gentlemen,  representing 
each  Congressional  district,  are  appointed  as  a  State  Com- 


256 

mittee  for  that  purpose,  with  full  power  fo  take  such  ac- 
tion in  behalf  of  the  success  of  our  principles  as  may  seem 
to  them  just  and  proper." 

In  this  meeting  were  read  a  great  many  letters  of  ad- 
herence, written  by  persons  of  distinction  belonging  to  the 
democratic  party,  but  among  them  all  none  were  so  sig- 
nificant as  that  of  the  Governor  of  the  State,  Horatio 
Seymour,  addressed  to  a  previous  meeting  held  in  Albany, 
not  only  on  account  of  the  official  position  of  that  gen- 
tleman, but  for  the  energetic  and  menacing  frankness 
with  which  it  was  written,  as  the  reader  can  judge  for 
himself :  z 

"  Executive  Department,  May  16,  1863. 

"  I  cannot  attend  the  meeting  at  the  Capitol  this  even- 
ing, but  I  wish  to  state  my  opinion  in  regard  to  the  ar- 
rest of  Mr.  Vallandigham.  It  is  an  act  which  has  brought 
dishonor  upon  our  country.  It  is  full  of  danger  to 
our  persons  and  our  homes.  It  bears  upon  its  front  a 
conscious  violation  of  law  and  justice.  Acting  upon  the 
evidence  of  detailed  informers,  shrinking  from  the  light  of 
day,  in  the  darkness  of  night,  armed  men  violated  the 
home  of  an  American  citizen  and  furtively  bore  him  away 
to  military  trial,  conducted  without  those  safeguards 
known  in  the  proceedings  of  our  judicial  tribunals.  The 
transaction  involves  a  series  of  offences  against  our  most 
sacred  rights.  It  interfered  with  the  freedom  of  speech  ; 
violated  our  rights  to  be  secure  in  our  homes  against  un- 
reasonable searches  and  seizures  ;  it  pronounced  sentence 
without  trial,  save,  one  which  was  a  mockery,  which  in- 
sulted as  well  as  wronged.  The  perpetrators  now  seek  to 
impose  punishment,  not  for  an  offense  against  law,  but  for 
the  disregard  of  an  invalid  order,  put  forth  in  utter 
disregard  of  the  principles  of  civil  liberty.  If  this  proceed- 
ing is  approved  by  the  government  and  sanctioned  by  the 
people,  it  is  not  merely  a  step  towards  revolution — it  is 
revolution  ;  it  will  not  only  lead  to  military  despotism — 
it  establishes  military  despotism.  In  this  aspect  it  must 
be  accepted,  or  in  this  aspect  rejected.  If  it  is  upheld,  our 
liberties  are  overthrown,  the  safety  of  our  persons,  security 
of  our  property  will  hereafter  depend  upon  the  arbitrary 
will  of  such  military  rulers  as  may  be  placed  over  us, 
while  our  constitutional  guarantees  will  be  broken  down. 
Even  now  the  Governors  and  Courts  of  some  of  our  West- 


257 

em  States  have  sunk  into  insignificance  before  the  despotic 
powers  claimed  and  exercised  by  military  men  who  have 
been  sent  into  their  borders.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  in- 
crease the  danger  which  now  overhangs  us  by  treating  the 
law,  the  judiciary  and  the  State  authorities  with  contempt. 
The  people  of  this  country  now  wait  with  the  deepest 
anxiety  the  decisions  of  the  administration  upon  these 
acts.  Having  given  it  a  generous  support  in  the  conduct 
of  the  war,  we  pause  to  see  what  kind  of  government  it  is 
for  which  we  are  asked  to  pour  out  our  blood  and  our 
treasure.  The  action  of  the  administration  will  determine 
in  the  minds  of  more  than  one-half  of  the  people  of  the 
loyal  States  whether  this  war  is  waged  to  put  down  the 
rebellion  at  the  South  or  to  destroy  free  institutions 
at  the  North.  'We  look  for  its  decision  with  most  solemn 
solicitude.  "  Horatio  Seymour." 

The  great  excitement  and  commotion  with  which  the 
democratic  party  inaugurated  the  most  significant  of  its 
political  evolutions,  against  military  despotism  engendered 
by  war,  and  then  in  favor  of  peace,  as  a  natural  conse- 
quence, caused  the  republicans  to  display  equal  activity 
in  opposing  their  adversaries,  by  pursuing  a  contrary 
course.  And,  as  the  existence  of  this  last  party  depends 
entirely  on  the  principle  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  it  im- 
mediately .  hastened,  through  official,  though  indirect 
means,  to  promote  the  adoption  of  most  violent  measures 
against  the  South,  by  means  of  new  international  treaties 
which  should  be  binding  on  the  entire  Republic;  in  which 
manner  the  republicans  would  not  only  effectually  destroy 
the  pacific  manifestations  of  their  adversaries,  but,  by 
rendering  the  basis,  until  then  existing,  for  a  decorous 
adjustment  between  the  North  and  South  impossible,  they 
would  make  themselves  all  powerful  in  authority  with  the 
resources  of  war. 

Owing  to  this,  the  London  Telegraph  announced  to  all 
the  world,  on  the  2d  of  June,  that  a  project  was  being  dis- 
cussed in  both  Houses,  to  demand  for  the  Royal  Navy  the 
right  of  search  under  the  flags  of  all  nations  on  the  coasts 
of  Madagascar;  and  for  this  reason  also,  ten  days  after, 
this  same  ministerial  organ,  becoming  the  interpreter  of 
Lord  Palmerston,  added:  that  a  treaty  had  just  been  sign- 
ed, between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  to  es- 
tablish mutually  between  the  two  nations  the  aforesaid 


258 

right;  from  which  it  appears  that  the  radical  party  of  the 
federals  had  divested  their  immunity  of  its  haughtiness, 
with  the  double  object  of  placing  an  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  any  peace  project  which  should  be  proposed  by  the  op- 
posite party,  and  of  preventing  the  Southern  States  from 
being  acknowledged  as  a  belligerent  nation  by  the  Euro- 
pean powers. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  some  defeats  suffered 
by  the  fe4eral  troops  on  the  Potomac,  and  the  urgent  ne- 
cessity for  provisions  and  other  resources  which  those  of 
Lee's  command  were  suffering,  induced  this  general  to 
make  a  powerful  invasion  into  the  Northern  States;  this 
he  actually  effected,  resolutely  and  victoriously  marching, 
with  over  one  hundred  thousand  men,  through  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania,  putting  Philadelphia  in  peril  and  me- 
nacing the  Capitol. 

This  event  gave  hopes  to  a  great  many,  and  filled  the 
majorities  with  serious  apprehensions,  spreading  universal 
alarm, which,  although  in  some  was  but  apparent,  was  vis- 
ibly manifest  to  all.  The  fate  of  the  Eepublic  depended 
on  the  issue  of  a  battle;  and,  as  in  situations  of  extreme 
danger,  the  least  favored  party  never  fail  to  reap  advan- 
tages, the  democratic  party,  owing  to  the  ill  success  which 
had  attended  the  efforts  of  a  favorite  of  the  radicals,  made 
tumultuous  demonstrations  in  favor  of  a  renowned  gene- 
ral, by  whom  they  were  to  effect  a  reaction  in  the  confi- 
dence of  the  government.  And  then,  weighing  the  dan- 
ger of  the  country  and  invoking  a  remedy  as  of  extreme 
necessity,  the  opponents  of  the  radical  administration  were 
not  content  with  demanding  in  a  menacing  tone  such 
measures  as  should  contribute  to  their  party  aims,  but, 
placing  themselves  on  strategic  grounds,  in  order  to  ac- 
commodate their  position  to  subsequent  results,  they  also 
gave  vent  to  menaces,  which  they  determined  to  carry  out 
as  soon  as  the  common  enemy  should  be  repulsed. 

"  Let  us  rout  and  defeat  the  rebels  first,"  said  the  New 
York  Herald  in  an  article  which  has  been  inserted,  in 
chapter  X,  "and  then,  without  delay,  let  us  exact  a  rigid 
and  final  account  from  the  abolitionist  traitors  of  the 
North,  who  are  answerable  for  the  rebellion  and  the 
triumps  it  obtained." 

An  officer  who  was  then  scarcely  known,  and  who  was 
chosen  at  a  venture  from  among  the  subaltern  generals,  to 


259 

take  the  chief  command  against  the  invading  army,  dis- 
played the  activity  whbh  is  so  important  in  military  ope- 
rations, and  caused  a  terrible  dissappointment  to  Lee;  he 
sacrificed  many  victims  to  his  country,  it  is  true,  but  he 
also  gave  three  days  of  victory  to  the  iederal  army.  Over 
an  extension  of  thirty-three  miles,  are  still  heaped  the  bo- 
dies of  those  killed  on  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  national  independence,  and  in  that  bloody  field, 
which  stretches  to  an  almost  boundless  expanse,  where  not 
a  tree  has  been  left  to  lift  its  sheltering  branches,  every 
one  having  been  uprooted  by  the  iron  which  was  belched 
forth  from  three  hundred  cannons  of  immense  calibre,  in- 
consolable mothers  wander  about,  instinctively  gathering 
up  pieces  of  human  flesh  with  the  purpose  of  carrying 
home  the  remains  of  their  sons! 

The  success  of  that  dreadful  day  greatly  encouraged  the 
republicans.  Who  knows  but  what  the  democrats  did  not 
hope  for  adverse  results,  so  as  to  overwhelm  their  enemies 
and  make  peace  with  the  South! 

But,  happening  as  it  did,  the  abolitionists  had 'their 
meetings  also,  and  the  churches  .were  profaned  by  having 
the  exclusiveness  of  parties  and  the  passions  of  men  dis- 
cussed in  them. 

I  have  myself  been  a  witness  of  this.  How  many  sar- 
casms have  been  uttered  there  against  the  meetings  held 
by  the  partizans  of  peace,  how  often  has  the  epithet  of 
traitor  been  hurled  at  them!  And  with  what  unparalled 
arrogance  did  they  proclaim  the  unconditional  submission 
of  the  South  as  obtainable  solely  through  a  war  of  exter- 
mination! Whilst  these  opinions  were  being  developed, 
I  can  do  no  less  than  confess  that  my  eyes  have  often  di- 
lated with  wonder  on  looking  on  the  place  in  which  we 
were,  as  the  subjects  discussed  by  these  clergymen  were 
entirely  inappropriate  to  the  sanctity  of  a  church. 

There  were  no  exaggerations  that  were  not  proclaimed, 
no  folies  that  were  not  committed.  In  a  church  of  Jersey 
City,  I  heard  a  venerable  man,  with  white  and  flowing 
hair,  his  face  showing  the  marks  of  more  than  seventy 
years,  dressed  as  if  for  a  feast,  finish  his  discourse,  after 
several  jokes,  with  a  very  objectionable  song.  The  au- 
dience applauded  the  wittiest  parts,  as  if  they  were  in  a 
theatre,  and  when  he  concluded  the  last  stanza,  the  air 


260 

was  rent  with  bravos,  hurrahs,  thunderings  of  canes, 
whistling  and  obstreperous  bursts  of  laughter. 

The  sinister  intentions  of  a  disguised  enmity  was  also 
heard  in  another  church,  under  friendly  appearances.  The 
English  abolitionists  did  not  fail  to  take  their  places 
wherever  the  idea  was  discussed  of  inundating  with  blood 
the  property  which  was  founded  on  the  labor  of  the  negrees. 
And  that  I  may  convince  my  readers  that  I  am  not  mis- 
taken, let  them  see  what  the  New  York  Herald  of  the  7th 
of  July  1863  says,  in  giving  the  details  of  one  of  these 
meetings. 

"  On.  Sunday  evening  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  (Rev. 
Dr.  Thompson's)  was  well  filled,  to  listen  to  an  address 
upon  English  sympathy  with  anti-slavery  in  the  United 
States,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Massie,  of  London,  who  comes  as  the 
representative  of  four  thousand  British  ministers,  with 
their  protest  against  recognizing  the  slaveholders'  confede- 
racy, and  their  appeal  for  emancipation.  Dr.  Thompson 
briefly  introduced  Dr.  Massie,  who  proceeded  in  a  lengthy 
discourse  to  establish  the  sovereignty  of  God,  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  the  designs  of  Providence  in  making 
America  the  home  of  liberty,  religion,  and  learning.  He 
said  he  was  ashamed  that  only  four  thousand  British  minis- 
ters signed  the  paper  sympathizing  with  the  United  States 
in  its  conflict  with  slavery  ;  but  he  affirmed  that  thousands 
withheld  their  signatures  from  misrepresentation,  acting 
under  the  conviction  that  the  American  war  had  nothing 
to  do  with  slavery.  He  showed  that  the  interests  of  Eng- 
land and  America  were  identical,  and  pointed  out  the  diffi- 
culties under  which  the  British  people  labored,  .among 
which  was  ignorance  of  the  geography  of  the  United 
States.  Ministers  had  actually  asked  him  to  explain  the 
difference  between  the  terms  "  republican "  and  "  demo- 
crat." He  had  addressed  large^audiences  in  Scotland  and 
England,  especially  in  Lancashire,  and  although  some  of 
the  audience  were  working  men,  who  had  just  come  from 
the  dockyards  where  piratical  ships  were  being  constructed, 
and  hissed  anti-slavery  sentiments,  not  one  accepted  the 
challenge  to  defend  the  cause  of  the  South.  The  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  England  were  in  favor  of  the  North, 
and  earnestly  looked  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Dr.  Mas- 
sie gave  a  detailed  account  of  the  great  conference  held  in 
Manchester,  where  an  address  was  adopted  expressive  of 


261 

sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  emancipation  of  the  slave, 
which  he  read.  It  congratulated  the  United  States  on  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  issuing  of  the  Presi- 
dent's proclamation. 

"  In  conclusion,  the  address  deprecated  any  retrograde 
action  in  reference  to  emancipation.  Dr.  Massie  said  he 
came  to  this  country  to  plead  the  cause  of  justice  to  the 
negro  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  also  as  the  friend 
of  the  slaveholder,  that  he  might  be  delivered  from  the 
curse  of  power.  He  wished  to  gain  the  co-operation  of 
America  with  England  in  diffusing  the  principles  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  After  prayer  the  congregation  was  dismissed." 

In  short,  and  since  the  recent  triumphs  of  the  Federal 
arms,  encouraged  freedom  of  speech,  all  the  accusations 
and  threats  which  had  been  heard  in  the  Democratic  peace 
meetings  against  the  other  party  were  now  flung  back  at 
them  word  for  word. 

From  all  this  ill- disguised  and  ill-repressed  anger,  it  was 
easy  to  guess  the  true  state  of  their  minds,  and  to  forsee 
the  disturbances  which  would  break  out  on  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  any  real  or  imaginary  offence.  And  as  the 
spirit  of  evil  is  never  idle,  when  not  restrained  with  a 
strong  hand,  a  prudent  measure  of  a  national  character  was 
taken  as  a  pretext  to  fan  into  flames  the  destructive  fire 
which  had  so  long  been  smouldering  within  the  Republic. 

The  arms  of  the  French  empire  had  just  triumphed  over 
the  Republic  of  Mexico  ;  re-establishing  order  in  the  inte- 
rior by  a  new  form  of  politics,  well  known  to  be  a  saving 
policy  among  the  Latin  race,  though  making  the  na- 
tional independence  very  problematical.  This  European 
intervention  introduced  in  the  New  World  for  the  first 
time  since  its  pressnt  nations  became  independent,  so  con- 
trary to  the  famous  Monroe  doctrine,  which  is  the  creed  of 
the  Americans,  and  so  contrary  also  to  its  official  practices 
in  respect  to  the  countries  of  the  other  continent,  did  not 
have  the  best  effect  on  the  Federal  administration,  nor  was 
it  possible  to  let  it  pass  unnoticed. (1)      And  as  simulta- 

(1)  The  American  Government  was  so  much  on  its  guard  with  respect 

to  the  European  intervention  in  Mexico,  that  in  order  to  preserve  its  ac- 

ions  free  from  all  casualties,  it  took  special  care  not  to  compromise  itself 

\n  other  interventions,  not  even  through  diplomatic  measures.     The  min- 


262 

neously  with  this  intervention  more  direct,  if  not  greater 
evils  were  threatened,  (for  the  Emperor  Napoleon  did  not 
disguise  his  intentions  of  recognizing  the  Confederacy  of  the 
South,  and  in  England  both  Houses,  and  the  other  centres 
of  public  opinion,  were  making  strenuous  efforts  to  do 
likewise,)  it  was  necessary  for  the  Government  at  Wash- 

istry  of  the  other  nations  would  have  wished  to  take  this  strategic  position 
by  surprise,  in  order  to  form  a  precedent ;  and  for  this  end,  France, 
Spain  and  England,  when  they  signed  the  compact,  called  upon  the  Uni- 
ted States  to  join  them,  saying  it  was  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  the 
Republic  of  the  North.  The  compromise  was  evaded  in  Washington,  as 
was  to  be  expected ;  and  afterwards  the  conflict  with  Poland  having  com- 
menced, in  a  seemingly  generous  spirit  which,  it  was  said,  sympathized 
with  all  liberal  ideas,  France,  on  her  account,  again  invited  the  United 
States  to  join  in  strengthening  with  her  powerful  adhesion,  the  message 
agreed  upon  with  England  and  Austria,  to  be  sent  to  St.  Petersburgh. 
The  answer  of  the  Federal  Government  is  a  model  of  its  kind  and  says  as 
follows : 

"Washington,  May  11,  1863. — M.  Mercier  has  read  to  me  and  at  my  re- 
quest has  'left  me  a  copy  of  a  dispatch,  dated  April  23,  which  he  has  re- 
ceived from  M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  and  which  refers  to  the  important 
events  now  taking  place  in  Poland  and  engaging  the  serious  attention  of 
the  principal  States  of  Western  Europe.  M.  Mercier  at  the  same  time 
has  communicated  to  me  a  copy  of  a  dispatch  relative  to  the  same  events, 
which  has  been  addressed  by  M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys  to  the  Embassador  ©f 
France  at  St.  Petersburg. 

"By  the  first  of  these  documents  we  learn  that  the  step  taken  by  the 
Cabinet  of  Paris  with  a  view  to  exercising  a  moral  influence  upon  his 
Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  has  received  the  approbation  and  the 
concurrence  of  the  Cabinets  of  Vienna  and  London,  and  that  the  Emperor 
of  the  French,  appreciating  the  value  of  our  traditional  sympathy  for 
Poland  on  the  one  hand,  and  our  ancient  friendship  for  Russia  on  the 
other,  would  be  happy  to  obtain  the  co-operation  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  in  this  important  question. 

"Having  taken  counsel  with  the  President,  I  am  now  able  to  communi- 
cate to  you  our  views  on  this  subject,  for  the  information  of  M.  Drouyn  de 
Lhuys. 

"The  American  Government  is  deeply  sensible  of  this  proof  of  the  friend- 
ship of  the  Emperor  of  the  French  in  asking  its  co-operatio»  upon  a 
subject  doubly  important  in  its  relations  to  order  and  to  humanity.  It 
has  been  no  less  favorably  impressed  with  the  sentiments  which  the  Em- 
peror Napoleon  has  expressed  in  so  delicate  a  manner  at  St.  Petersburg, 
and  with  the  appeal  which  he  has  made  to  the  noblest  of  human  sympa- 
thies. The  enlightened  and  humane  character  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
which  has  recently  shown  itself  in  the  liberation  of  so  large  a  number  of 
serfs  in  his  domains,  gives  us  the  assurance  that  this  appeal  will  be 
accepted,  and  that  it  will  meet  at  St.  Petersburg  with  all  the  good  will 
compatible  with  the  general  well-being  of  the  vast  States  which  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia  governs  with  so  much  wisdom  and  moderation. 

"Nevertheless,  notwithstanding  the  so  favorable  reception  which  we 
are  disposed  to  give  to  the  suggestion  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  the 
American  Government  finds  an  insurmountable  difficulty  in  associating 
itself,  by  any  active  co-operation,  with  the  Cabinets  of  Paris,  London  and 
Vienna,  as  it  requested. 


263 

ington  either  to  neglect  by  a  criminal  indifference  the  im- 
portance of  these  events,  or  to  take  a  decided  attitude  in 
the  midst  of  its  civil  troubles,  to  prevent  the  consuma- 
tion  of  the  one  and  to  remedy  the  effects  of  the  other. 
Choosing  the  second  extreme,  as  was  natural,  and  taking 
advantage  of  those  movements  of  sublime  enthusiasm,  in 


"  Having  founded  our  institutions  upon  the  rights  of  man,  the  founders 
of  our  Republic  have  always  been  regarded  as  political  reformers,  and  it 
soon  became  evident  that  the  revolutionists  of  all  countries  counted  upon 
the  effective  sympathy  of  the  United  States,  if  not  upon  their  active 
assistance  and  protection.  Our  noble  Constitution  had  hardly  been  estab- 
lished when  it  became  indispensable  for  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  examine  to  what  degree  it  was  compatible  with  our  security  and 
well-being  to  interfere  in  the  political  affairs  of  foreign  States,  whether  by 
an  alliance  or  any  concerted  action  with  other  Powers,  or  otherwise.  An 
urgent  appeal  of  this  kind  was  addressed  to  us  with  regard  to  France. 
This  appeal  was  sanctioned  by  and  acquired  new  strength  from  the  treaty 
of  alliance  and  mutual  defence  which  then  existed,  and  without  which,  it 
must  be  confessed  to  the  honor  of  France,  our  sovereignty  and  independ- 
ence would  not  have  been  so  promptly  secured. 

"  This  appeal  touched  so  profoundly  the  heart  of  the  American  people, 
that  it  was  only  the  deference  felt  for  the  Father  of  his  Country,  then  at 
the  apogee  of  his  moral  greatness,  that  compelled  it  to  declare  that,  in 
view  of  the  condition  of  the  Republic,  of  the  character  of  its  constituent 
parts,  and  especially  the  nature  of  its-  exceptional  Constitution,  the 
American  people  must  confine  itself  to  advancing  the  cause  of  progress 
in  the  world  by  exercising  at  home  a  wise  power  of  self-government,  bat 
keeping  aloof  from  all  foreign  alliance,  intervention,  or  interference. 

"  It  is  true  that  Washington  believed  that  a  time  wrould  come  when,  our 
institutions  being  firmly  consolidated  and  working  harmoniously,  we 
might  safely  take  part  in  the'  deliberations  of  foreign  Powers,  to  the 
general  advantage  of  all  nations.  Since  that  time  many  occasions  have 
arisen  for  departing  from  a  rule  which,  at  the  first  glance,  might  seem  to 
be  an  inevitable  cause  of  isolation.  One  was  an  invitation  to  join  the 
Congress  of  the  Spanish  States  of  America,  then  just  liberated.  Another 
was  the  urgent  appeal  of  Hungary  to  aid  her  in  the  recovery  of  her 
ancient  and  illustrious  independence.  Still  another,  the  project  to  gua- 
rantee Cuba  to  Spain,  conjointly  with  France  and  Great  Britain.  More 
recently,  the  invitation  to  co-operate  with  Spain,  France  and  Great  Bri- 
tain in  Mexico  ;  and  later  still,  the  proposition  of  some  of  the  Spanish 
American  States  to  establish  an  international  council  for  the  Republican 
States  of  this  continent.  All  these  suggestions  were,  in  succession,  declined 
by  our  Government,  and  this  decision  wras  each  time  approved  by  the  judg- 
ment of  the  American  people.  Our  policy  of  non-intervention,  however 
rigorous  and  absolute  it  may  appear  to  others,  has  thus  become  a  tradi- 
tional policy,  which  ought  not  to  be  abandoned,  except  upon  urgent 
occasions  of  a  manifest  necessity.  It  would  be  still  less  wise  to  deviate 
from  it  when  a  local,  though  we  hope  transitory  insurrection  deprives  mia- 
Government  of  the  advice  of  one  part  of  the  American  people,  to  which 
so  grave  a  deviation  from  the  established  policy  would  be  far  from  being 
indifferent. 

"  The  President  does  not  doubt  a  moment  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
will  see  a  proof  of  the  deference  for  him  and  the  French  people  as  weH 
as  a  desire  to  co-operate  for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  the  progress  of 


264 

which  the  triumphs  of  Meade,  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  the 
precarious  state  of  Port  Hudson,  which  at  last  surrender- 
ed to  the  heseigers,  and  the  taking  of  some  forts  outside 
of  Charleston,  were  "being  celebrated,  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment ordered  and  commenced  to  carry  out  a  draft  of  three 
hundred  thousand  men.  The  occasion  was  propitious  it 
cannot  be  denied,  if  on  the  part  of  the  opposing  faction  a 
pretext  had  not  been  made  to  deminish  the  preponderance 
acquired  in  so  short  a  time  by  the  Republicans,  and  if  the 
economical  necessities  of  the  administration  had  not  in- 
troduced into  the  official  decree  which  I  have  just  cited, 
some  clauses,  contrary  to  the  perfect  equality  of  all  the 
citizens.  For  in  fact,  if  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men,  added  to  three  hundred" thousand 
who  are  now  under  arms,  would  be  sufficient  to  continue  a 
series  of  the  recent  triumphs  until  the  submission  of  the 
Southern  States  to  the  Federal  Constitution  was  effected, 
and  to  be  well  prepared  against  the  internal  complications, 
he  also  calculated  that  this  mass  of  consuming  and  un- 
productive people,  enlisted  under  a  certain  character  of 
perpetuity  would  need,  for  their  maintainance,  equipment, 
and  armament,  much  greater  sums  than  those  existing,  or 
likely  to  exist,  in  the  public  treasury. 

humanity  in  Europe,  in  this  fidelity  to  our  traditional  policy,  the  observ- 
ance of  which  has  contributed  to  our  security,  and,  we  hope,  also  to  the 
interests  of  humanity." 

I  think  that  in  the  document  which  has  just  been  inserted  there  is  less 
of  sincerity  than  of  political  tact,  because  the  principle  of  non-interven- 
tion, so  much  applauded  in  theory  and  trampled  upon  in  practice,  has 
been  as  little  binding  on  the  Americans,  when  it  has  been  to  their  in- 
terests to  infringe  it,  as  on  the  European  nations  who  have  endeavored  to 
propagate  it  the  most  eagerly.  In  the  Mexican  question,  against  the  re- 
sults of  which,  the  Ministry  of  Washington,  in  its  diplomatic  notes  has 
prepared  itself,  there  is  a  recent  case  which  shows  the  justice  of  these  re- 
marks; I  allude  to  the  case  of  Anton  Lizardo,  the  official  documents  of 
which  are  well  known;  and  as  to  Europe  which  displays  so  many  scruples 
about  other  interventions,  on  account  of  the  supposed  sancity  of  that 
false  prii  ciple,  how  can  it  logically  reconcile  this  idea  with  the  war  in 
the  East,  the  war  in  Italy,  a»d  its  present  attitude  towards  Russia  on 
account  of  the  revolt  of  Poland  1  Leaving  aside  all  these  considerations 
and  giving  our  whole  attention  to  the  case  which  now  occupies  us,  there 
is  no  doubt,  that  the  answer  of  American  diplomacy  to  the  French  Min- 
istry was  given  in  anticipation  of  the  events  which  have  transpired,  nor 
is  it  foreign  to  the  object  which  has  occasioned  this  note  ;  so  that  if  the 
war  of  the  French  in  Mexico  degenerates  into  a  permanent  intervention 
in  the  interior  policy  of  the  country,  which  can  no  longer  be  doubted, 
the  Federal  Republic,  on  account  of  its  antecedents  and  doctrines  is  in  a 
position  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  affairs. 


265 

For  this  reason,  doubling  the  number  of  men  needed, 
in  his  order  for  the  draft,  he  said,  that  all  citizens  who 
should  wish  to  commute  their  personal  service,  could  do 
so  by  paying  three  hundred  dollars,  with  which  sums  the 
Government  would  procure  substitutes. 

As  I  have  already  stated,  the  Democrats  only  awaited  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  overthrow,  by  a  single  stroke,  all 
the  advantages  of  their  adversaries,  and  although  we  can- 
not affirm  that  they  took  this  opportunity  to  instil  into 
the  minds  of  the  people  the  spirit  of  opposition  which  im- 
mediately broke  out  against  the  draft,  still  it  is  very  evi- 
dent that  the  rioters  participated  in  the  designs  of  the 
Democrats.  \ 

This  resistance  -  was  organized  upon  two  foundations, 
both  equally  dangerous  to  social  order  ;  one  arose  from 
the  eternal  question  of  the  poor  versus  the  rich  ;  the  other 
was  of  a  purely  political  nature,  and  pronounced  itself 
against  the  original  cause  of  the  war. 

On  the  former  point  the  rioters  expressed  themselves  in 
these  terms  :  If  the  country  is  really  in  need  of  re-inforce- 
ments,  let  us  have  the  draft,  we  have  nothing  to  say  against 
that,  but  must  the  entine  burden  of  military  service  be 
borne  by  the  poor  alone  ?  What  is  meant  by  making 
only  those  who  have  not  three  hundred  dollars  where- 
with to  redeem  themselves  become  soldiers  ?  Let  there 
be  no  distinctions  made  between  free  citizens,  and  let  the 
laws  be  carried  out  without  the  slightest  restraint  on  indi- 
vidual liberty.  Whoever  can  procure  a  substitute  with 
his  own  money  may  do  so,  and  none  will  complain  ;  but 
let  the  Government  beware  of  assuming  the  power  of  con- 
trolling our  actions  and  our  will,  establishing  arbitrary 
quotas,  and  setting  a  price  on  men's  lives. 

And  then,  from  the  other  point  of  this  tumultous  clamor 
they  proceeded  in  this  strain  :  Enough  of  war  !  All  the 
negroes  in  the  world  are  not  worth  one  drop  of  the  blood 
which  is  being  spilt  for  them.  This  struggle  is  carried  on 
not  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  but  for  base  interests,  and 
we  must  at  once  and  forever  rid  ourselves  of  those  who 
thus  despoil  us.  Death  to  the  Abolitionists  !  Death  to 
the  niggers,  and  destruction  to  everything  that  opposes 
the  establishment  of  peace,  the  first  and  greatest  necessity 
of  a  free  and  industrious  people  ! 
.  The  events  which  immediately  followed  these  demon- 


266 

strations  oppress  memory  and  fill  the  imagination  with 
horror.  Bloodshed,  fire  and  desolation  rapidly  spread 
through  the  city  and  reigned  supreme,  meeting  with  little 
resistance,  and  much  to  satisfy  their  cravings.  Charitable 
institutions,  public  buildings,  private  residences,  churches, 
stores,  and  manufactories,  all  were  invaded  by  the  mob, 
sacked  and  reduced  to  cinders.  The  offices  of  the  Aboli- 
tion periodicals,  arid  the  dwellings  of  the  most  prominent 
Kepublicans  were  attacked  with  frightful  impetuosity,  a 
few  owing  their  safety  solely  to  the  extensive  preparations 
for  defense  made  before  the  attack. 

And  the  negroes,  those  unfortunate  beings,  the  innocent 
and  even  unconscious  cause  of  the  civil  war  and  so  many 
disorders,  who  are  well  satisfied  with  their  mode  of  life,  and 
never  ask  to  be  raised  to  a  higher  state/not  even  those  who 
are  free  and  have  received  an  education  adapted  to  their 
faculties,  and  who  know  the  civil  condition  in  which  the 
rest  are  kept ;  the  negroes,  I  repeat,  whom  everybody  tries 
to  mould  into  white  men,  and  who  are  raised  to  that  con- 
dition by  some,  through  a  philanthropy  which  has  now  de- 
generated into  a  malignant  pertinacity  to  overthrow  the 
peace  of  4;he  world,  the  laws  of  nature  and  even  the  happi- 
ness of  their  proteges :  and  by  o'thers,  from  a  sanguinary 
rancor,  which  drags  them  from  their  agricultural  labors 
to  send  them  to  the  war  ;  the  latter  in  their  severity,  in 
order  to  insure  them  against  the  contagion  of  a  disastrous 
and  criminal  emancipation  :  the  former  in  their  anarchial 
paroxysms,  against  the  authorized  ordinances  :  the  unfor- 
tunate negroes,  I  repeat,  were  hunted  down  in  New  York 
as  if  they  had  been  wild  beasts,  they  were  beaten  to  death 
like  mad  dogs,  and  thrown  into  the  flames,  or  hung  alive, 
on  the  lamp- posts,  to  be  tortured  or  thrown  into  the  sea 
with  feet  and  hands  bound,  to  make  their  death  more  pain- 
ful. 

During  those  dreadful  days  of  death  and  desolation,  in 
which  they  saw  the  flames  devour  their  homes,  their  wives 
and  children,  without  any  signs  which  might  denote  a  ces- 
sation of  these  horrors,  perhaps  even  without  a  thought  of 
a  better  life,  they,  who  were  free  in  the  North,  would  have 
willingly  exchanged  places  with  the  slaves  of  the  South,  if 
only  their  peaceful  labors  were  not  interrupted  by  the  ma- 
lignant echoes  of  abolitionism,  which  ever  effects  the  de- 
struction of  whatever  it  intends  to  make  subservient  to  its 


267 

philanthropic  dreams  or  the  hidden  avarice  of  its  specula- 
tions !     e     *     *     • 

Such  is  the  summing  up  of  the  evils  brought  upon  this 
world  by  the  fatal  idea  which,  though  sprung  from  Heaven- 
born  charity,  was  perverted  by  interest,  that  most  success- 
ful of  Satan's  works.  Anarchy  has  not  ceased  to  reign, 
for  the  draft  had  to  be  suspended  in  order  to  put  an  end  to 
the  devastation  ;  and  the  principle  of  authority,  with  dif- 
ficulty restored  with  the  presence  of  forty  thousand  soldiers 
in  a  State  where  the  law  has  heretofore  been  self-support- 
ing, was  rent  by  the  hands  of  the  incendiaries,  perhaps 
overthrown  forever ;  for  evils  are  easily  renewed  if  the  ele- 
ments which  caused  them  are  again  put  in  motion  by 
wrongly  interpreted  measures  or  by  any  malignant  sugges- 
tion. 

And  in  the  meantime,  commerce  flees  terrified  from  one 
of  its  greatest  and  most  lucrative  centres,  and  all  the  in- 
dustrial pursuits  which  do  not  depend  on  the  war,  will  soon 
cease  because  the  funds  are  being  carried  into  other  coun- 
tries where  they  may  rest  on  a  security  which  is  no  longer 
to  be  found  here. 

Add  to  all  this  accumulation  of  calamities,  the  fate  of 
the  unhappy  negroes,  at  sea,  when  the  vessels  that  bear 
them  are  closely  pursued  and  the  captains  that  command 
them  are  devoid  of  conscience.  I  have  heard  of  a  great 
many  of  these  cases,  so  dreadful  that  I  will  not  relate 
them,  but  will  say  only  that  the  death  of  at  least  four  hun- 
dred negroes  was  caused  solely  that  about  fifty  white  sai- 
lors might  not  be  obliged  to  go  to  Sierra  Leone ! 

And  are  things  to  continue  in  such  a  state  much  longer  ? 
Is  this  the  way  that  the  most  important  labors  of  philan- 
thropy are  to  be  carried  out  ?  Is  public  right  to  go  on  in 
this  manner,  is  the  peace  of  the  world  to  be  held  so  cheaply, 
and  is  it  thus  that  whole  nations  shall  be  allowed  to  des- 
troy themselves  ? 

Oh  !  this  cannot  be,  unless  the  mighty  powers  of  the 
earth  are  inspired  by  the  Evil  One  I 


CHAPTER  XIL 


The  necessity  of  making  peace,  and  on  what  basis  it  should  be  made.— - 
Obstacles  which  the  question  presents  on  account  of  the  international 
rights  in  reference  to  the  negroes. — Various  combinations  which  are  an- 
nounced for  the  purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  the  war. — They  are  analized 
and  the  results  are  unfavorable. — The  peace  cannot  be  solid  and  lasting 
unless  the  existing  treaties  on  the  redemption  are  revised. — With  this 
fundamental  improvement  the  peace  would  be  indestructible  between 
the  North  and  the  South.— Project  of  a  treaty  to  arrive. at  that  object. 
— The  great  question  whether  the  two  sections  should  unite  or  separate 
politically  at  the  time  of  making  peace.— Authoritative  opinions  which 
have  been  given  and  still  exist  in  favor  of  and  against  both  objects 
or  ends.  ► 


From  all  that  has  been  said  in  the  preceding  chapters, 
an  incontestible,  absolute  and  urgent  truth  results,  namely: 
that  it  is  necessary  to  make  peace  in  such  a  manner  as 
shall  be  acceptable  to  all. 

This  proposition,  however  simple  it  may  appear  in  its 
form,  is,  in  fact,  exceedingly  complicated,  when  we  con- 
sider the  history  of  slavery,  the  existence  of  the  interna- 
tional treaties,  and  the  motives  which  have  caused  the 
war. 

The  end  which  I  will  aim  at  in  this  important  part  of 
my  work,  and  to  which  I  will  devote  my  entire  energies,  is: 
To  grant  to  the  negroes  a  new  civil  state,  almost  superior 
to  their  natural  comprehension,  which  shall  differ  entirely 
from  the  condition  in  which  they  have  lived,  for  three  and 
a  half  centuries,  among  civilized  nations,  and  from  the 
barbarous  and  untutored  existence  which  they  lead  in 
their  own  country.  To  satisfy  the  all  pervading  senti- 
ment of  holy  charity  proceeding  from  the  Christian  reli- 
gion which  was  given  to  the  world  when  the  blood  of  the 
Savior  was  shed  on  Calvary ^  which,  was  defended  by  the 


270 

martyrs,  and  has  finally  spread  throughout  the  world,  the 
idea  of  human  liberty.  To  insure  safety  and  respect  to 
the  interests  of  labor,  which  has  made  vast  territories  of 
waste  lands  productive  to  commerce,  and  has  raised  above 
the  horrors  of  paganism  eighteen  nations  of  civilized  peo- 
ple. In  fact,  to  unite  in  the  bond  of  unity  two  jarring 
tendencies,  which  now  seek  their  mutual  destruction, 
either  by  re-establishing  a  constitution  which  has  been 
overthrown  by  the  exaggerations  of  both  parties,  or  else 
by  recognizing  two  distinct  nations,  which  once  formed 
but  one,  without  in  any  manner  lessening  their  original 
greatness. 

As  I  shall  have  to  contend  with  inveterate  prejudices, 
secular  abuses,  erroneous  ideas,  with  apparent  injustice, 
with  fraudulent  interests,  with  local  views  of  an  unfriendly 
character,  with  arrogant  pretensions,  with  exclusive  ten- 
dencies, deep  rancor,  and  perhaps  also  with  the  vanity  of 
some  wealthy  parties,  who,  having  settled  on  some  other 
plan  less  important,  will  not  be  willing  to  replace  it  by  a 
tetter  one  which  is  not  of  their  own  contrivance.  My 
task  is  as  arduous  as  the  ability  with  which  I  undertake 
it  is  limited. 

But  I  have  justice,  which  is  the  infallible  result  of  abso- 
lute truth  for  my  beacon  in  my  moral  speculations  ;  and 
although  I  am  aware  that  evil  passions  and  wicked  in- 
terests generally  prevail  over  it,  still  I  believe  that  by 
being  equitable  and  having  truth  for  a  base,  everything 
that  depends  upon  the  will  of  man  is  possible. 

" Truth,"  said  a  philosopher,  "is  the  motive  power  of 
modern  nations  to  which  the- dominion  of  the  world  has 
been  promised ;  and  if  for  the  love  of  country  we  have 
seen  a  nation  of  heroes  rise,  from  the  love  of  truth  which 
is  greater  and  more  sublime  still,  the  civilization  of  the 
whole  human  race  will  at  last  be  seen  to  emanate."a) 

And  as  to  the  present  question,  the  truth  is,  that  while 
the  arrangements  that  may  be  made  to  settle  it  keep  the 
doors  of  scandal  open  to  selfishness,  and  to  legitimate  in-, 
terests,  founded  fears  ;  whilst  in  the  name  of  humanity 
and  within  the  law,  which  neither  emanates  from  justice 
nor  has  been  founded  upon  the  principles  of  true  charity, 
the  civilization  which  is  maintained  by  labor  is  menaced  ; 

(1)  Aim6  Martin:  Education  des  meres.de/amille.     Lib.  1,  chap.  xii. 


271 

as  long  as  odious  exceptions  are  made  in  the  divine  sen- 
tence which  condemns  all  men  equally  to  live  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brow,  and  this,  not  for  the  purpose  of  improving 
in  a  civil  sense  a  degraded  race,  but  to  perpetuate  its 
ignorance  by  excluding  it  from  all  intercourse  ;  as  long  as 
in  said  arrangement,  I  repeat,  the  interests  created  within 
the  limits  of  social  morality,  of  common  advantage  and 
practical  history  by  all  the  nations  by  them  affected,  are 
not  kept  in  view,  the  peace  which  may  therefrom  result 
will  not  rest  upon  a  solid  foundation,  and  the  clashing  of 
arms  will  still  continue. 

In  order  that  peace  may  be  a  fact,  it  is  necessary  that 
the  treaties  should  also  be  facts,  and  this  will  not  be  the 
case  as  long  as  one  of  the  contracting  parties  can  be  in- 
jured, and  whilst  by  an  equivocal  interpretation  of  the 
law  there  are  means  of  eluding  its  fulfilment. 

Let  us  not  deceive  nor  attempt  to  fortify  ourselves  with 
absurdities,  to  maintain,  with  vain  pride,  an  agreement 
which  is  not  only  imperfect  but  full  of  defects.  It  is  now 
forty-five  years  since  1818,  that  the  philanthropy  of  the 
abolitionists  began  to  obtain  legal  concessions  against  the 
redemption  of  the  negroes,  and  since  that  time  the  re- 
demption of  the  negroes  has  not  only  failed  to  be  extin- 
guished but  it  has  prospered  ;  the  prohibition  far  from  re- 
alizing the  idea  of  its  efficiency,  has  clearly  demonstrated 
the  manner  in  which  it  could  be  frustrated,  openly  and 
secretly,  by  the  very  nations  by  which  it  has  been  pro- 
claimed. Add  to  this  the  desasters  which  this  fatal  agree- 
ment has  produced  ;  the  lands  it  has  ruined,  the  blood  it 
has  caused  to  be  shed,  instead  of  the  fruitful  sweat  which 
it  desired  to  spare,  and  the  frightful  chaos  with  which  it 
threatens  the  world  ;  and  after  that  no  one  will  hesitate  to 
abandon  the  path  which  has  been  followed  during  those 
forty-five  years  ;  or  we  shall  be  obliged  to  proclaim  frankly 
that  the  pertinacity  of  the  abolitionists  is  an  infamous 
conspiracy  against  the  property  of  the  nations  who,  in  be- 
half of  true  humanity,  avail  themselves  of  the  labor  of 
the  negroes. 

If,  as  an  ancient  philosopher  very  well  said,  "  even 
idiots  are  taught  by  experience," (1)  and  if  it  is  true,  besides, 

that  circumstances  occur  every  day  which  may  make  us 

(1)  Titus  Livious;  Hist.  lib.  xxii. 


a 


272 

modify  the  most  rooted  opinions,*'  as  a  modern  statesman 
has  also  stated, (1)  for  experience  presents  itself  to  the  sight 
bespattered  with  blood  and  pregnant  with  horrors,  and 
the  necessity  of  a  radical  transformation  of  the  treaties 
oannot  be  more  urgent,  owing  to  the  circumstances  which 
have  occurred  and  are  notorious,  it  is  clear  that  the  re- 
petition of  the  evil  which  it  has  caused  up  to  this  time 
and  which  threatens  so  many  others  for  the  future;  could 
not  be  attributed  to  stupidity  but  to  malice ;  it  would 
not  be  attributed  to  the  offuscation  of  some  ignorant 
minds,  but  as  a  preconcerted  plan  of  miscreants  against 
society. 

But  the  fact  is,  that  with  the  present  civilization,  how- 
ever much  it  may  tend  to  the  deification  of  interest  by 
the  natural  effects  of  rationalism,  the  idea  of  slavery  is 
not  only  in  opposition  to  human  liberty  but  is  looked  upon 
as  an  anachronism  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

But  as  after  a  conscientious  and  rigorous  analysis  on 
the  character  and  origin  of  this  institution  and  on  its  pre- 
sent application,  sufficient  explanations  have  been  given 
to  show,  by  exact  comparisons,  that  at  present  the  nomen- 
clature only  is  preserved,  with  the  want  of  foresight,  of 
charity  and  good  judgment ;  labor  being  the  law  of  God 
for  all  men,  and  that  by  its  means  only  the  negroes  can 
liberate  themselves  from  the  ignominious  state  in  which 
they  live  in  their  own  native  country,  it  is  high  time  to 
give  to  each  thing  its  precise  interpretation  and  true  name 
in  behalf  of  the  peace  of  the  world,  and  in  favor  of  the 
same  civilization  which  we  all  proclaim  and  all  desire. 

If  this  be  done,  a  conciliatory  plan  may  be  frankly 
adopted  by  all  the  nations  interested  in  this  question, 
which  besides  would  have  the  advantage  of  stability  ;  be- 
cause by  assimilating  it  to  common  right,  without  injuring 
this  or  any  other  country,  but  rather  favoring  all,  would 
close  to  litigation  the  smallest  opening. 

I  would  explain  my  views  at  once,  just  as  I  have  con- 
ceived them,  on  the  basis  of  justice,  looking  to  the  quiet 
of  nations,  were  reports  of  peace  which  deserve  to  be  com- 
mented upon  in  circulation.  They  have  no  official  char- 
acter, but,  to  a  certain  extent,  they  are  probable  ;  and  as 

(1)  Llorente,  Spanish  Minister  of  Finance,  Parliamentary  speech  in  the 
Cortes,  April  5,  1853. 


273 

the  people  are  getting  tired  of  the  war,  though  this  cannot 
be  suspected  from  what  is  going  on  in  the  battle-field,  it- 
might  so  happen,  in  consequence  of  a  revolution  of  public 
sentiment,  or  by  some  peremptory  necessity  of  high  policy, 
that  upon  the  said  basis  the  arms  should  at  once  fall  from 
the  hands  of  the  combatants;  resulting  therefrom  that  an 
armistice  rather  than  a  peace  would  be  concluded;  because 
by  leaving  the  former  causes  of  the  war  in  existence,  their 
effects  would  again  reproduce  themselves  sooner  or  later. 

One  of  said  reports,  and  I  have  seen  several  of  a  similar 
nature,  coinciding  in  date,  place  of  writing  and  spirit,  is 
found  in  a  recent  letter  from  Paris,  written  by  a  person 
who  is  generally  well  informed,  which,  following  in  the 
wake  of  the  European  diplomacy  in  this  question,  and 
having  reference  to  the  evolutions  of  the  representatives  of 
the  two  American  sections  at  that  Court,  said  as  follows: 
"  The  possibility  of  a  speedy  arrangement  between  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  States  is  again  spoken  of.  It 
appears  that  the  Southern  States  propose  the  abolition  oj 
the  slave  trade,  and  accept  the  arbitral  intervention  ,of 
Franqe  for  the  adoption  of  the  measure  to  be  used  in  the 
meantime,  in  order  not  to  affect  too  suddenly  the  rights  of 
the  slave  owners." 

The  other  report,  though  not  directly  from  Paris,  is  of 
very  great  importance,  infinitely  more  than  the  other;  and 
it  has  already  been  so  considered  by  every  respectable  or- 
gan of  public  opinion/  having  been  published  in  the 
papers  and  greatly  discussed;  and  it  is  even  stated  that  on 
its  account  the  Federal  Government  will  change  its  in- 
terior policy. 

It  is  nothing  less  than  a  letter  from  Washington,  pub- 
lished in  the  Herald,  making  revelations  of  great  import- 
ance on  the  policy  of  England  and  France  as  to  the  two 
beligerant  sections  of  the  United  States.  My  readers  will 
allow  me  to  insert  it  entire  in  this  place,  in  order  that  with 
more  knowledge  of  the  matter  they  may  be  the  better  able 
to  judge  the  commentaries  which  I  shall  write  after  it. 

"  Washington,  July  24,  1863. 

"  The  movement  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Seward, 

having  for  its  object  the  offer  of  liberal  concessions  to  the 

insurgents  and  the  ending  of  the  present  war,  has  received 

*  an  impetus  from  the  news  which  has  just  reached  us  from 


274 

our  foreign  ministers  in  London  and  Paris.  It  is  now  ad- 
mitted by  the  most  sanguine  members  of  the  administra- 
tion that  never  were  our  foreign  affairs  in  so  menacing  a 
state.  England — so  the  official  advices  indicate — has  de- 
termined to  furnish  the  South  with  an  iron-clad  navy, 
including  ships,  guns  and  seamen.  It  is  equally  certain 
that  the  emperor  of  France  has  made  up  his  mind  defin- 
itely to  interfere  in  our  domestic  affairs.  It  is  true  that 
at  the  date  of  the  last  advices  from  abroad  the  impression 
was  general  in  Furope  that  Lee  would  defeat  Meade's 
army,  Washington  be  captured,  and  Baltimore  and  Phila- 
delphia seized,  while  the  Northern  States  seemed  apathetic 
and  indisposed  to  continue  the  war;  but  this  condition  of 
things  only  finally  determined  the  English  and  French 
governments  to  pursue  a  policy  which  they  had  all  along 
been  prepared  to  pursue,  and  which  comported  with  their 
interests  and  sympathies. 

"  The  changed  condition  of  affairs  due  to  the  fall  of 
Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson,  and  the  rebel  defeat  at 
Gettysburg  will  not,  it  is  believed  by  the  most  sagacious 
of  the  friends  of  the  administration,  alter  the  character  of 
the  action  which  France  and  England  have  finally  deter- 
mined to  adopt.  The  appearance  of  a  fleet  of  French 
vessels  at  New  Orleans,  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  Cre- 
ole population  at  that  point,  and  the  sailing  of  a  very 
large  iron-clad  fleet  from  the  English  ports,  are  certain  to 
take  place.  Indeed,  it  is  understood  here  that  the  real 
peril  to  the  North  will  come  when  it  is  apparent  to  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  and  the  British  Cabinet  that  there  is 
a  strong  probability  of  the  overthrow  of  the  South  as  a 
military  power. 

"  So  long  as  the  contest  was  an  even  one,  they  could 
afford  to  be  neutral  and  let  the  matter  be  fought  out;  but 
the  moment  there  is  a  danger  of  the  North  overpowering 
the  South,  then  intervention  will  be  tried  to  compel  a 
separation  upon  which  both  England '  and  France  are  de- 
termined— England  to  cripple  the  power  of  this  great-  re- 
public, and  France  to  preserve  her  dominion  in  Mexico. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  if  the  North  and  South  were  to 
come  together,  France  would  immediately  be  compelled  to 
relinquish  her  hold  upon  Mexico,  and  this  Louis  Napoleon 
is  determined  shall  not  happen.  Hence,  it  is  argued,  he 
will  take  time  by  the  forelock,  aid  the  South  against  the 


275 

North,  earn  a  title  to  its  gratitude,  and  thus  retain  his  hold 
upon  Mexico,  and  pursue  his  schemes  in  Central  America. 
England  also  is  aware  that  should  the  Union  be  restored, 
it  will  find  both  North  and  South  embittered  against  her 
and  ready  for  war.  It  is  a  matter  of  certainty — and  the 
English  understand  it  well — that  the  American  Republic 
will  follow  the  example  of  the  old  Roman  Republic,  which 
always  embarked  upon  a  foreign  war  after  a  civil  convul- 
sion so  as  to  induce  a  unity  of  national  spirit. 

"  With  these  indications   before   them,   and  with  the 
unofficial  dispatches  of  our  ministers  and  consuls  abroad, 
Mr.  Seward  and  the  President  are  convinced  that  this  is 
the  most  critical  time,  so  far  as  regards  our  relations  with 
foreign  Powers,  that  we  have  had  since  the  commencement 
of  the  war.     We  cannot  afford  to  permit  England  to  de- 
stroy our   commerce,    nor   allow   France   to   pursue  her 
designs  on  New  Orleans.     This  state  of  affairs  made  the 
President  and  Secretary  of  State  anxious  to  settle  up  our 
present  quarrel.     They  see  very  clearly  the  straits ^f  Jeff. 
Davis  and  the  rebel  government — indeed,  their  absolute 
despair — as  is  shown  by  the  call  for  a  levy  en  masse  of  the 
fighting  population  of  the  whole  South;  and  they  believe 
that  proper  measures  taken  now  would  restore  the  Union 
and  put  an  end  to  the  present  unhappy  war.     From  what 
I  hear  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  measures  are  now  on 
foot  looking  to  this  end,  and  that  it  is  not  impossible  that 
we  may  see  a  sudden  change  of  parties  in  the  United 
States  within  the  next  month — that  Governor  Seymour, 
Vallandigham,  and  the  odds  and  ends  of  the  democratic 
party,  and  the  conservative  republicans,  may  be  found  to  be 
warm  supporters  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  able  Secre- 
tary of  State;  while  the  republican  presses  and  orators — 
the  Sumners,  Phillipses,  Wilsons,  Wades,  Chandlers,  with 
the  Tribune,  Times,  Past,   and  all  the  agency  of  the  radi- 
cals,  will   be   brought   to  bear   in   an  opposition   party 
against  the  reunion  that  will  be  proposed  by  the  Presi- 
dent.    Of  course  the  whole  shoddy  interest  in  the  war, 
and  the  enormous  sums  interested  in  the  moving  of  arm- 
ies, will  be  bitterly  opposed  to  any  adjustment.     But  the 
prospect  of  peace  North  and  South,  will,  it  is  believed, 
rally  the  bulk  of  the  people  of  the  North  to  the  standard 
of  the  administration,  provided  it  will  decide  upon  some 
such  course. 


276 


u 


The  letter  of  the  Solicitor  General  (Whiting),  assert- 
ing that  the  administration  must  continue  in  its  negro 
policy,  no  matter  what  emergency  arises,  is  understood  to 
be  the  occasion  of  that  gentleman  being  sent  abroad.  His 
letter  was  a  move  on  the  part  of  the  radicals  to  commit 
the  government  unofficially  to  the  negro  policy.  His 
being  set  aside  at  this  time  is  an  indication  that  different 
counsels  are  beginning  to  prevail  in  the  White  House,  and 
there  is  a  hope  that  the  whole  abolition  gang  will  soon  be 
thrown  out. 

"  Of  course,  reunion  at  this  stage  of  the  war  will  in- 
volve the  necessity  of  the  administration  changing  its 
abolition  policy.  The  prograiiune  is,  that  the  Territories, 
as  decided  in  the  recent  Congress,  shall  remain  free  for- 
ever, thus  preventing  the  extension  of  slavery.  Slaves 
freed  by  the  march  of  the  armies  will  remain  free.  Mis- 
souri is  to  become  a  free  State,  as  she  has  chosen  to  be, 
and  Maryland  and  Delaware  may  also  be  free  if  they 
should  so  decide.  But  the  other  slave  States  are  to  re- 
tain such  of  their  slaves  as  will  be  under  the  actual  con- 
trol of  the  masters  at  the  end  of  the  war.  Mr.  Seward 
argues  that  slavery  has  received  a  blow  in  this  country 
from  which  it  can  never  recover,  and  that  it  would  be  bet- 
ter to  leave  the  natural  causes  at  work  to  end  it  than  to 
convert  the  South  into  a  desert  by  depriving  it  of  its  la- 
boring population.  It  is  understood  that  this  plan  will 
not  suit  the  radicals,  and  the  embarassment  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln now  is,  not  to  bring  about  a  reunion  so  much  as  to 
know  what  to  do  with  this  party  in  case  he  should  consent 
to  a  peace.  The  situation  is  a  perplexing  one,  and  will 
call  out  all  the  sagacity  and  administrative  ability  of  the 
people  in  power." 

This  book  is  not  written  with  so  transitory  a  character 
that  it  will  lose  its  importance  before  its  doctrines  be  ac- 
cepted in  councils  ;  or  another,  that  like  this,  shall  dispel 
all  the  ulterior  difficulties  to  establish  a  permanent  agree- 
ment on  the  question  of  the  negroes,  shall  be  found.  I 
make  this  statement,  in  order  that  an  intention  of  exclu- 
siveness  opposed  to  all  other  arrangements,  such  as  might 
control  any  spirit  less  philosophical,  may  not  be  attributed 
to  my  arguments. 

I  have  known  by  experience  these  many  years,  and  by 


277 

the  lessons  of  the  world  I  have  constantly  known,  that  he 
who  does  everything  by  his  own  suggestions  is  more  dar- 
ing than  wise.  This  being  premised,  let  us  enter  upon 
the  analysis  of  the  data  which  we  have  just  inserted. 

The  first  says,  "  That  the  Southern  States  propose  the 
abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  that  they  accept  the  arbi- 
tration of  France  for  the  arrangement  of  the  measures  to 
be  adopted  in  the  meantime,  in  order  not  to  affect  too 
suddenly  the  rights  of  slave  owners."  And  it  seems  to  me 
that  this  assertion  in  its  true  sense  is  susceptible  of  two 
interpretations,  the  one  absurd,  and  the  other  unlikely. 
Because,  if  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  is  taken  as 
meaning  the  abolition  of  the  importation  of  Bozales,  the 
Southern  States  cannot  propose  the  abolition  of  that 
which  is  already  legally  abolished  by  all  the  international 
treaties,  and  this  is  the  sense  in  which  the  proposition  has 
appeared  to  me  to  be  absurd;  and  if  the  object  referred  to 
is  not  to  traffic  with  the  Creole  negroes  born  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  condition  of  slaves,  which  is  a  private 
business  that  greatly  facilitates  agricultural  labor  in  the 
districts  that  are  short  of  hands  for  its  labors,  this  would 
be  the  same  as  to  limit  property,  contrary  to  all  right, 
both  in  its  extension  as  in  its  speculations,  for  which  rea- 
son I  think  it  unlikely. 

What  is  sought,  therefore,  is  not  to  abolish  the  trade, 
but  to  pursue  it  with  efficient  results  ;  stipulating,  no 
doubt,  extraordinary  compromises  in  new  arrangements  to 
be  made.  Unless  by  calculations  hitherto  unknown,  the 
means  have  been  found  in  the  Southern  States  to  lay  aside 
slavery,  which  is  the  only  agent  of  labor  which  constitutes 
its  wealth.  In  such  a  case  the  report  we  are  analyzing 
should  be  interpreted  differently,  and  then  the  arbitration 
of  France  would  come  in  play. 

If  it  is  not  so,  as  it  certainly  cannot  be,  admitting  the 
prohibition  of  the  clandestine  trade  to  be  still  in  force, 
there  must  result  from  the  new  international  compromises 
which  the  Confederacy  may  contract,  one  of  two  things, 
viz  :  that  in  order  to  comply  scrupulously  with  her  en- 
gagements she  should  infringe  upon  the  rights  of  territo- 
rial property  with  abuses  and  other  tyrannical  and  danger- 
ous encroachments  ;  or  else  leave  things  in  the  same  state 
as  they  are  now,  with  no  other  advantage  than  an  addi- 
tional protocol,  offering  the  same  inducements  as  hereto- 


278 

fore  to  the  cupidity  of  traders  and  an  inexhaustible  fund 
of  dissatisfaction  and  recrimination  to  the  governments. 

In  the  first  case  there  would  happen  to  the  land  owners  in 
the  Southern  States  what  happened  a  few  years  since  to 
those  of  Brazil ;  and,  indeed,  with  still  more  disastrous 
consequences,  considering  the  necessity  to  replace  upon  the 
estates  the  great  losses  of  hands  caused  by  the  war,  and  by 
the  abolitionist  proclamations  of  the  Federal  Government. 
That  is  to  say,  that  supposing  that  the  Confederate  Go- 
vernment should  act  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Brazilians, 
banishing  at  once  from  the  country,  in  a  tyrannical  man- 
ner and  without  the  least  trial,  all  those  suspected  to  be 
carrying  on  or  to  have  carried  on  the  same  trade,  and  en- 
couraging denunciations  to  the  prejudice  of  morality  and 
at  the  expense  of  the  public  treasury,  (since  forty,  dollars 
were  offered  for  each  bozal  negro  of  any  expedition  who 
might  be  discovered,  even  after  the  individual  had  reached 
the  States  in  which  he  then  constitutes  a  property  until 
then  inviolate,)  the  Southern  planters  would  see  their 
estates  irretrievably  ruined,  as  many  of  the  estates  of  the 
Brazilian  planters  have  been  ;  and  what  now  is  an  abun- 
dant supply  for  local  consumption  and  exportation,  they 
would  have  to  obtain  to-morrow  at  the  expense  of  great 

crifices  in  other  more  happy  countries. 

In  the  second  instance,  that  is,  in  case  of  making  a  pro- 
formulary  protocol,  entrusting  its  execution  to  the  cruisers, 
with  more  or  less  good  faith,  which  is  the  most  that  any 
Government  of  a  productive  country  who  does  not  wish 
knowingly  to  ruin  the  interests  of  its  subjects  can  do,  to 
serve  foreign  intrusions,  the  question  would  remain  in  its 
present  state  :  and  sooner  or  later,  when  it  would  suit  the 
views  of  another  more  powerful  nation  to  create  a  crisis 
such  as  are  only  settled  by  arms,  viz  :  some  insulting 
words  implying  supposed  or  real  bad  faith  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  existing  treaties  against  the  slave  trade  ;  half  a 
dozen  inconsiderate  and  notoriously  aggressive  notes;  two  or 
three  cases  of  outrages  on  the  flag  upon  the  high  seas,  for 
which  the  odious  right  of  search  offers  so  many  opportuni- 
ties, and  which  until  now  the  Anglo-Americans  have  re- 
jected with  much  propriety,  but  to  which  they  now  seem 
to  have  acceded,  with  less  regard  to  honor  than  thirst  for 
revenge  :  all  these  means  together,  or  any  one  of  them 
separately  would  suffice  to  break  the  peace  that  might  now 


279 

be  made  upon  such  foundations,  and  oblige  them  to  enter 
into  a  war  infinitely  more  dangerous  than  the  one  now  car- 
ried on. 

For  the  Confederate  States  not  to  run  upon  this  rock 
it  would  be  necessary  that  the  required  supply  of  hands  on 
the  plantations  should  not  have  been  so  much  dimin- 
ished by  the  war,  which  still  continues  to  destroy  them ; 
this  is  in  the  supposition  that  in  the  normal  state  of  things 
the  Creole  negroes  are  in  sufficient  number  to  fill  the  com- 
plement of  laborers  indispensable  in  the  entire  Republic. 

Besides,  the  question  of  negro  labor  is  no  longer  a  ques- 
tion of  locality,  but  a  general  one,  which  if  settled  here  to- 
day without  sufficient  solidity,  may,  to-morrow,  after  hav- 
ing produced  so  much  injury  to  the  commerce  of  the 
world,  spring  up  in  another  place  with  a  more  alarming 
character  and  greater  danger  to  all. 

To  comment  on  the  second  report  of  peace,  I  should 
have  to  repeat  much  of  what  the  first  suggested  to  me,  as 
both  in  their  hypothetic  conditions  leave  the  important 
question  of  which  we  treat  pending  on  a  definite  treaty. 

I  will  not  take  into  account  those  exaggerated  interna- 
tional dangers  to  which  the  Washington  letter  alludes,  as 
we  have  no  facts  sufficiently  significant,  aside  from  the 
proclamation  of  the  Empire  in  Mexico,  to  warrant  them  to 
be  of  such  gigantic  proportions  as  the  said  letter  represents 
them.  This  is  not  to  say  that  they  are  not  true  to  some 
extent,  and  that  the  belligerent  parties  of  North  America 
should  not  measure  and  weigh  well  their  ulterior  resolu- 
tions of  war  in  accordance  thereof.  x 

Confining  ourselves  therefore  to  the  basis  contained  in 
said  document  to  bring  about  a  peace,  I  will  frankly  say 
that  they  are  not  acceptable  by  the  Southern  States,  un- 
less driven  to  it  by  despair,  and  in  order  to  give  this  opi- 
nion more  comprehensiveness  in  the  minds  of  others,  I  beg 
to  be  allowed  to  view  the  question  according  to  the  analy- 
sis of  the  said  basis. 

"That  the  Territories  shall  forever  remain  free,  as  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Federal  Congress,  avoiding  in  this  nlannei 
the  propagation  of  Slavery."  Here  we  have  a  precept 
which,  if  it  does  not  affect  the  States,  at  least  renders  use- 
less, unless  large  tracts  of  land  which  aspire  to  become  mem- 
bers of  the  Union,  and  which  by  being  deprived  of  the 
means  of  labor,  coerces  liberty  in  its  most  legitimate  desires. 


280 

If  those  Territories  can  exist  and  progress  in  proportion 
to  their  geographical  extent  and  their  natural  wealth, 
without  the  aid  of  foreign  hands,  there  is  no  reason  why 
those  impediments  against  the  importation  of  laboring 
people  into  them  should  he  recommended ;  as  it  is  clear 
that  no  one  seeks  what  he  does  not  require,  nor  do  labor- 
ers go  where  they  cannot  be  employed.  But  on  the  other 
hand  if  the  said  Territories  require,  and  this  is  the  fact, 
a  great  impulse  of  material  strength  for  their  development, 
is  it  not  lamentable  that  their  present  well-being  and  their 
future  prosperity  should  be  sacrificed  to  a  noble,  but  evi- 
dently mistaken  sentiment  ? 

The  same  holds  good  with  regard  to  the  States  of  Mis- 
souri, Maryland,  and  Delaware,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  resolutions  which  exceptional  circumstances  have  made 
them  adopt  under  the  pressure  of  events  :  and  on  extend- 
ing these  considerations  to  the  countries  that  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  labor  of  the  negroes  as  slave  countries, 
be  it  understood  that  I  hold  the  same  opinions  towards  the 
rest  of  the  world,  as  no  laboring  negroes  should  be  taken 
forcibly  and  by  redemption  where  they  were  not  needed. 

In  any  case,  their  usefulness  or  convenience  can  be  esti- 
mated by  no  one  better  than  by  each  country  within  itselt, 
and  subservient,  of  course,  to  the  political  and  economical 
views  of  its  own  administration  ;  without  taking  into  ac- 
count foreign  interest,  so  long  as  no  injury  is  done,  within 
the  laws  of  nature  which  are  binding  to  all  the  world. 

The  Washington  letter  further  says  :  "  that  the  remain- 
ing States  where  there  are  slaves,  shall  retain  those  they 
may  have  at  the  termination  of  the  war  ;  and  as  if 
human  nature  in  its  combinations  which  tend  to  evil, 
knew  not  how  to  express  the  satisfaction  it  feels  at  its  own 
success";  Mr.  Seward  adds,  that  slavery  has  received  in 
this  country  a  blow  from  which  it  will  never  recover ;  and 
it  is  therefore  better  to  leave  to  natural  causes  the  comple- 
tion of  the  work  of  emancipation,  than  to  convert  the 
country  into  a  desert,  by  depriving  it  of  the  laboring  pop- 
ulation. According  to  this,  the  Southern  States  will,  on 
the  termination  of  the  war,  retain  the  slaves  which  may 
remain  to  them  ;  and  this  they  did  not  require  that  any 
one  should  tell  them,  as  it  is  for  their  own  interests  to  do 
so.  As  to  the  emancipation  of  those  whom  the  soldiers  of 
the  North  have  taken  to  a  military  life,  or  to  any  other 


281 

worl  as  free  people,  it  would  not  do  to  consent  to  their 
reins ^jtenieut  in  their  former  condition,  without  very  great 
danger  to  property,  as'  based  upon  morality  and  discipline. 
Add  to  the  number  thus  rendered  useless  for  labor,  those 
who  have  perished  in  the  field,  who  are  many,  and  we  shall 
not  only  arrive  at  the  confirmation  of  this  promise,  but  it 
will  prove  the  truth  of  the  fatal  prediction  of  Mr.  Seward, 
admitting  that  he  has  really  made  it,  if  in  the  treaties  of 
peace  a  remedy  is  not  provided. 

This  being  so,  we  shall  always  have  to  come  to  the  ne- 
necessity  of  making  peace  in  a  manner  that  will  satisfy 
the  interests  of  all :  let  each  side  sacrifice  to  the  good 
faith  of  its  wishes  and  to  the  moral  of  public  law  a  reason- 
able amount  of  its  aspirations  ;  and  let  the  statesmen 
prove  that  they  are  worthy  of  the  name,  not  by  the  posi- 
tion they  occupy,  but  by  the  consistency  of  their  acts. 

To  arrive  at  this  point,  which  is  the  climax  of  my  aspi- 
ration, and  which  is  the  conclusive  evidence  of  the  question 
we  are  discussing,  some  with  arms  and  others  with  argu- 
ments, it  is  necessary  also  that  some  one  should  take  the 
initiatory  step  to  establish  a  preliminary  agreement,  upon 
which  the  operations  of  war  could  be  suspended. 

If  those  international  fears  expressed  in  the  Washington 
letter  were  true,  we  can  readily  understand  how  difficult 
it  would  be  to  trust  for  peace  to  a  previous  revision  of  the 
existing  treaties  respecting  what  is  called  slavery,  because 
the  two  most  powerful  nations  among  all  those  who  would 
have  to  consent  to  the  revision,  being  interested  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  war,  it  is  not  likely  that  they  would  agree 
to  so  very  important  a  measure,  if  peace  should  be  the 
necessary  result. 

For  that  reason,  therefore,  and  as  if  in  reality  such  an 
unlikely  international  conspiracy  existed,  I  think  that  the 
Federal  States  and  the  Southern  Confederacy,  who  are 
now  belligerents,  should  commit  its  solution  to  themselves 
alone,  suspending  at  once  the  effects  of  all  contracts  made 
by  either  party  to  the  prejudice  of  the  other,  and  absolute- 
ly resisting  all  foreign  exactions  of  similar  character. 

This  fundamental  resolution  once  taken,  I  also  think  it 
indispensable  to  enter  upon  the  path  of  moral  promises 
and  real  indemnifications  ;  and  then,  to  strengthen  what 
now  may  be  agreed  upon,  with  due  regard  to  local  rights 
and  to  the  justice  due  all  parties,  I  am  fully  of  the  opinion 


282 

that  the  government  of  the  United  States,  if  the  Union  is 
re-established,  or  the  true  governments  which  may  result 
from  the  peace,  if  the  independence  of  the  South  should 
be  consummated,  should  formally- and  absolutely  compro- 
mise themselves  to  urge  upon  all  the  interested  nations  the 
propriety  of  revising  said  treaties  relative  to  the  negroes, 
that  there  may  be  a  true,  solid,  reasonable  and  moral  com- 
pact of  positive  execution  agreed  upon,  that  will  not  be 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  Christian  civilization,  and  be  pro- 
pitious to  the  interests  of  all. 

Without  imagining  that  I  have  discovered  the  right 
method  to  accomplish  this  purpose,  but  with  the  commend- 
able pretension  of  having  approached  it  as  near  as  possi- 
ble, I  consider  that  it  will  be  easy  to  realize  the  views  con- 
tained in  both  documents,  and  having  already  sufficiently 
shown  the  necessity  of  framing  them,  I  shall  now  proceed 
to  explain  the  first,  such  as  I  have  conceived  it  is. 

The  basis  of  a  peace  independent  of  the  international 
treaty  by  which  the  present  jurisprudence  respecting  the 
negroes  is  to  be  altered,  should  rest  upon  the  following 
three  principles : 

First. — To  recognize  on  both  sides  the  liberty  of  action 
to  individuals  and  to  localities,  each  to  regulate  their 
interests  in  conformity  to  their  respective  requirements. 
In  this  wise  the  States  that  now  have  the  institution  of 
compulsory  labor  by  the  negroes,  would  have  the  right  to 
abolish  it,  if  they  should  think  it  proper,  either  collective- 
ly or  individually  ;  and  those  States  who  do  not  make  use 
of  the  compulsory  labor  of  the  negroes,  as  well  as  the  Ter- 
ritories, might  establish  it  with  the' same  freedom,  if  their 
views,  their  customs  and  their  natural  laws  and  policy 
counseled  it. 

The  morality  of  this  principle  will  be  better  understood 
when  the  project  of  the  treaty  which  is  to  substitute  all 
those  which  have  been  hitherto  made  by  the  interested  na- 
tions in  reference  to  the  negroes  ;  because  in  said  project 
the  civil  condition  of  the  laboring  negro  is  modified,  with- 
out the  slightest  prejudice  to  social  order  or  the  discipline 
of  the  labor,  and  this  change  is  made  acceptable  in  all  its 
parts,  even  to  the  most  exquisite  moral  susceptibility. 

Second. — Should  the  Union  be  re-established,  the  Fede- 
ral Government  would  have  to  raise  funds  to  indemnify, 
on  a  proportional  and  equitable  scale,  the  planters  whose 


283 

negroes  may  have  been  emancipated  by  the  troops  of  the 
North  or  escaped  by  their  connivance  ;  but  if  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  South  should  be  consolidated,  it  will  be  the  duty 
of  the  Confederate  Government  or  to  each  particular  State 
to  settle  this  matter  with  absolute  independence  of  the 
Northern  States  ;  and  always  bearing  in  mind  the  sacri- 
fices imposed  by  the  war  on  the  general  mass  of  the  citi- 
zens. 

This  second  principle  which  might  be  dispensed  with, 
taking  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  abstract,  is  not  so  im- 
portant but  as  it  might  be  connected  with  the  material  re- 
establishment  of  the  plantations  by  the  acquisition  of  other 
laboring  negroes.  And  as  it  is  not  probable  that  any 
planter  will  be  willing  to  deprive  himself  of  his  own  to  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  another,  it  may  be  anticipated  that  the 
third  principle  on  which  the  basis  of  peace  must  rest,  con- 
sists in  rejecting  all  foreign  proposition  which  may  tend  to 
strengthen  the  existing  treaties  against  the  redemption  of 
African  negroes  :  since  the  revision  is  the  point  to  which 
all  Northern  and  Southern  efforts  must  be  concentrated  in 
an  entirely  opposed  sense  to  that  which  until  now  has 
with  such  ill  success  prevailed  for  the  last  forty-five  years. 

The  question  of  limits  and  the  natural  regulations  of 
political  relations  between  the  two  republics,  if  in  reality 
there  are  to  be  two,  or  the  particular  relations  between  the 
States  if  the  Union  is  restored,  would  also  be  essential  mat- 
ter for  some  of  the  articles  of  the  treaty  which  might  be 
proposed.  But  as  the  character  of  these  local  matters  are 
unconnected  with  the  general  intention  of  this  book  re- 
specting the  negroes,  I  do  not  think  it  necessary,  but  rather 
out  of  place  to  enter  into  details  for  a  definite  settlement, 
when  the  better  knowledge  of  the  Americans,  looking  to 
their  own  interest  and  to  their  own  rights  might  advanta- 
geously replace  the  greatest  combinations  which  might  be 
proposed  here. 

I  say  the  same  thing  with  respect  to  the  main  question 
as  to  there  being  one  or  two  nations  constituted  by  means 
of  the  peace  ;  for  being  a  foreigner  and  absolutely  impar- 
tial to  either  aspirations,  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  ex- 
press my  wish  or  even  to  give  my  advice. 

This  fact,  however,  will  not  prevent  me  from  discussing 
the  possibility  of  adopting  without  difficulty  either  of  the 
two  resolutions  ;  and  to  the  analysis  of  so  delicate  a  matter 


284 

I  shall  devote  myself,  not  from  a  vain  desire  of  handling  it, 
but  because  they  also  are  contributive  to  the  ends  of  this 
book. 

I  have,  before  now,  stated  that  there  are  international 
dangers  in  the  separation,  which  would  already  have  been 
made  evident,  if  there  was  any  truth  in  the  disclosure  of 
the  Washington  letter.  According  to  these  disclosures 
and  by  reason  of  the  greatness  imparted  to  a  country  by 
the  number  of  its  inhabitants  and  the  extent  of  its  terri- 
tory, it  may  easily  be  suspected  that  the  marked  tenden- 
cies of  the  Southern  States  to  constitute  their  national  in- 
dependence is  incompatible  with  peace.  But  those  dan- 
gers and  the  diminution  which  would  result  from  the  dis- 
memberment of  both  sections  would  be  more  apparent  than 
real,  when  we  consider  that  the  greatness  of  nations  is 
shown  rather  by  the  affinity  of  their  internal  elements  with 
their  international  relations,  than  by  the  numerical  scale  of 
their  inhabitants  and  the  number  of  square  miles. 

Let  us  suppose  that  in  the  anxiety  of  preserving  the 
Union,  the  sacred  fire  of  independence  would  be  but  par- 
tially extinguished  in  the  heart  of  the  Southern  States, 
and  that  from  this  cause  their  efforts  would  be  multiplied 
to  perpetuate  themselves  in  power,  with  great  detriment 
to  the  policy  of  the  North  ;  or  that  its  antagonism  to  the 
men  of  that  section  who  might  constitutionally  remain  in 
power,  would  weaken  the  acts  of  the  Administration,  ap- 
pearing always  as  a  dangerous  threat.  In  "this  case,  which 
is  more  than  probable,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Union  would  be  a  calamity,  since  while  making 
a  show  of  strength  it  would  really  possess  none,  owing  to 
the  absence  of  harmony  between  its  elements  ;  and  it  is 
evident  that  this  being  the  case,  it  would  be  better  for  the 
nation  to  be  divided  into  two  administrative  nationalities, 
each  being  the  arbiter  of  its  own  laws,  but  united  for  its 
common  existence  by  indissoluble  treaties  of  offensive  and 
defensive  alliance  and  commercial  relations. 

The  idiosyncrasy  of  the  respective  interest  of  both  the 
North  and  the  South  would  admirably  contribute  to  this 
solution  ;  the  complexion  of  their  political  and  economi- 
cal laws  and  their  geographical  conditions.  But  I  must 
add  that  the  considerations  expressed  in  favor  of  said  solu- 
tion are  not  absolute,  inasmuch  as  there  exist  others 
equally  possible  which  recommend  above  all  things  the  re- 


285 

establishment  of  the  federal  greatness  in  a  conciliatory 
and  permanent  manner. 

Considerations  on  both  plans  have  already  been  sug- 
gested to  the  minds  of  all  thinking  men  both  in  the  North 
and  in  the  South  ;  so  that  the  exclusivism  against  a  de- 
corous and  useful  settlement  cannot  be  apprehended  on 
laying  the  foundations  for  peace,  there  being  many  re- 
spectable statesmen  in  the  South  who  advocate  the  resto- 
ration of  the  Union,  and  in  the  North  those  who  favor 
the  consolidation  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

Among  the  former  the  venerable  Mr.  Johnson  deserves 
special  mention,  whose  letter,  addressed  to  a  New  York 
paper  on  the  13th  of  May,  1863,  will  always  hold  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  history  of  the  efforts  made  by  true 
patriotism  in  favor  of  the  re-establishment  of  peace  on  the 
basis  of  the  old'  Constitution  of  the  Republic.  At  the 
same  time,  as  well  as  previously  and  subsequently,  many 
.  others  expressed  the  same  opinion,  as  did  also  Guthries, 
WickilfTes,  Jones,  Kodney,  Bates,  Rives,  Sumner,  Kuffin, 
Morehead,  and  so  many  other  enlightened  patriots  of  the 
Confederation  who  spoke  and  wrote  upon  the  excellence 
of  the  Federal  Union  with  a  view  to  its  restoration. 

There  are  also  many  in  the  North  who  have  spoken  and 
written  in  favor  of  separation,  especially  in  those  large 
meetings  which  not  long  since  have  taken  place  for  the 
purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  the  war.  The  three  cheers 
addressed  to  Jefferson  Davis  by  the  Democrats  of  New 
York  at  the  opening  of  the  great  meeting  in  Union  square 
still  harmoniously  ring  in  my  ears ;  and  not  because  the 
political  symbol  which  that  name  represents  is  more  or 
less  sympathetic  to  me,  but  because  such  a  demonstration 
in  favor  of  the  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
made  in  the  most  powerful  State  of  the  North  gives  an 
idea  of  the  conciliatory  tendencies  which  exist  in  the  entire 
Republic. 

In  order  that  such  an  idea  should  spread  to  all  its  ex- 
tent, giving  an  immense  force  to  my  opinions  relative  to 
peace,  it  would  be  necessary  to  insert  entire  the  speeches 
made  at  that  meeting.  I  will  not  do  so,  that  I  may  not 
deviate  too  much  from  the  object  to  which  these  investi- 
gations lead  me  ;  nevertheless,  I  will  not  omit  some  pas- 
sages which  are  to  the  purpose,  and  which,  of  themselves, 
are  very  significant. 


286 

The  honor  of  that  meeting  is  due  to  Dr.  Bradford,  al- 
though another  gentleman  no  less  competent,  citizen  Din- 
ning, presided  over  it  ;  as  after  the  latter  had  introduced 
the  former,  as  the  expounder  of  the  principles  of  the 
party  who  had  called  the  meeting,  the  said  Doctor  not 
only  established  those  principles  on  all  the  constitutional 
theories  consigned  by  the  most  eminent  men  from  Washing- 
ton- down  to  the  present  day,  but  demonstrated  in  an  legal, 
and  I  may  almost  say  in  an  absolute  manner,  that  the 
war  was  being  carried  on  contrary  to  all  law,  according  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  Republic  : 

"No  independent  State  at  any  period  of  the  world  ever 
voluntarily  relinquished  sovereign  power,  much  less  created 
a  master  and  conferred  upon  him  the  absolute  authority  to 
coerce  it  or  to  subjugate  it.  Chief  Justice  Dana,  in  the 
Massachusetts  Convention  for  the  ratification  of  the  Con- 
stitution, saitl  that  c  the  Federal  Government  springs  out 
of  and  can  alone  be  brought  into  existence  by  the  State 
Governments  :  demolish  the  latter  and  there  is  an  end  of 
the  former/  (Cheers.)  The  Union  was  founded  on  the 
great  principles  of  mutual  protection,  mutual  interest, 
and  equal  rights  in  whatever  concerns-  our  persons,  privi- 
leges and  property.  The  least  discrimination  in  the  Con- 
stitution in  favor  of  or  against  the  enjoyment  of  any  one 
of  these  would  have  been  fatal  to  its  adoption,  and  so 
long  as  the  principles  upon' which  it  was  adopted  shall  be 
preserved,  not  only  by  the  parties  to  it,  but  by  the  Go- 
vernment created  by  it,  so  long  can  the  Union  exist  and 
no  longer.  As  was  truly  said  by  a  distinguished  gentle- 
man of  this  State,  '  Successful  coercion  is  as  much  revo- 
lution as  successful  secession/  "     (Cheers.) 

He  afterwards  spoke  of  the  qualification  of  each  of  the 
parties  into  which  the  republic  is  divided  respecting  the 
war  ;  and  to  explain  it,  set  down  the  following  propo- 
sition : 

"  HOW   CAN   DEMOCRATS   SUSTAIN   THIS   WAR  ? 

"  Having  thus  thown  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  demo- 
cratic party  to  return  to  its  own  principles  and  to  reiterate 
them;  that  the  chief  of  them  is,  that  the  States  are  sover- 
eign and  independent,  and  that  the  general  government  is 
feeble  and  dependent,  and  has  not,  therefore,  military 
power  by  which  to  coerce  the  States  into  compliance 


287 

against  their  own  idea  of  law,  right  and  justice,  we  declare 
that,  admitting  that  the  power  exists,  its  exercise  in  incon- 
sistent with  union.  If  civil  war  is  inconsistent  with  fed- 
erative union,  so  is  union  inconsistent  with  war. 

"  But  suppose  none  of  these  objections  existed  to  the 
present  war,  how  can  the  democratic  party  sustain  it  ?  Its 
objects  are  not  left  to  supposition.  They  have  been  pro- 
claimed by  the  President,  by  the  action  of  the  late  Con- 
gress, and  by  the  practice  of  the  army  itself.  It  is  not  to 
sustain  or  to  restore  the  Federal  Union,  but  to  destroy  and 
uproot  the  domestic  institution  of  States,  to  destroy  pri- 
vate property,  and  to  subvert  the  form  and  theory  of  the 
Federal  Government  itself.     (Cheers.) 

"  To  support  the  war  is  to  support  the  policies  of  the 
war.  This  proposition  is  too  plain  to  be  disputed;  from 
it  there  is  no  escape.  To  support  the  war  is  to  support 
confiscation — not  by  the  Courts  under  the  Constitution, 
but  by  acts  of  Congress  contrary  to  the  constitution;  eman- 
cipation and  arbitrary  arrests,  not  by  any  lawful  author- 
ity, but  by  the  monstrous  and  frightful  usurpations  of  the 
President — (hisses) — subjugation  not  to  bring  the  South 
back  into  the  Union,  but  to  reduce  it  to  the  condition  of 
Territories  and  convert  it  into  one  vast  San  Domingo. 
These  are  the  policies  of  the  war,  and  if  the  war  should  be 
successful  these  policies  will  be  accomplished. 

"  The  professed  democrat,  therefore,  who  is  .deliberately 
for  the  war,  is  not  a  democrat  in  fact,  but  an  abolitionist 
of  the  most  radical,  violent  and  destructive  kind.  It  is 
useless  for  a  person  to  say  that  he  is  for  the  war  for  one 
set  of  purposes,  when  the  war  is  not  prosecuted  for  any  of 
those  purposes,  but  for  the  opposite  and  antagonistic  pur- 
poses. This  is  to  stultify  himself.  The  abolitionists  do 
not  care  on  what  pretences  or  professions  people  support 
the  war;  they  only  ask  that  they  will  support  it  on  some 
pretence;  for,  the  policies  of  the  war  being  fixed,  support 
of  it,  on  whatever  pretence,  enures  to  the  aid  of  those  pol- 
iticians just  as  certainly  and  effectively  as  support  of  it  on 
the  positive  ground  of  these  policies.  How  can  democrats 
endorse  such  a  war  ?  How  can  the  democratic  party  as  a 
party  sustain  such  a  war  ?  By  endorsing  the  war  we  of 
necessity  endorse  the  policy  of  those  who  prosecute  it  in 
chief  command.  To  support  the  former,  and  at  the  same 
time  oppose  the  latter,  is  an  absurdity.     To  do  the  one  we 


288 

necessarily  do  the  other.  The  President's  emancipation 
proclamation  and  the  war  go  hand  in  hand  together.  It 
is  pusillanimous  to  carp  at  the  moral  .pigmies  of  the  crisis 
while  we  cringe  to  its*giant.  This  war  is  the  curse  of  the 
age  in  which  we  live.  (Cheers.)  Without  it  we  would 
have  retained  all  the  liberties  now  lost.  Without  wai 
there  had  been  no  abridgment  of  liberty  of  person,  or 
speech,  of  the  press,  or  onerous  taxes  to  pay,  or  issuance 
of  negro  proclamations.  True,  these  are  not  necessarily 
concomitants  of  war,  but  only  so  when  it  is  managed  by 
negro  philanthropists.  (Hisses.)  They  have  had  the 
management  of  it  thus  far,  and  will  continue  so  to  manage 
it  as  long  as  it  lasts.  This  war  has  been  the  pretext  for 
all  the  wrongs  against  which  the  democratic  party  protest, 
and  the  c  war  power/  the  instrument  of  their  accomplish- 
ment. (Cries  of  l  peace,  peace/  and  cheers,  the  people 
rising  in  a  body,  waving  hats,  handkerchiefs,  &c,  &c") 

After  which,  setting  forth  his  theories  in  regard  to  peace, 
with  great  applause  from  the  meeting,  he  said  : 

"  Then  if  the  democracy  would  work  a  reformation  they 
must  strike  at  the  cause  of  the  evil.  The  continuance  of 
the  war  will  be  fatal  to  our  liberties.  Suppose  that  this 
war  be  continned  for  two  years  more  by  the  assistance  of 
democrats,  would  there  be  a  vestige  of  civil  liberty  left  ? 
Of  what  use  would  democratic  victories  be  then  ?  It 
would  be  out  of  the  power  of  any  party  to  restore  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  old  order  of  things.  But  in  that  event  we 
could  get  no  victories.  The  whole  legitimate  and  usurped 
power  of  the  government,  wielded  by  the  unscrupulous 
demagogues  who  now  control  it,  would  be  more  than  a 
match  for  any  political  combination  that  might  be  formed 
against  them.  The  only  road  to  democratic  victories  is 
through  peace.  Why  should  politicians  fear  that  a  peace 
party  may  prove  unpopular.  If  the  war  has  damned  the 
republican  party,  is  it  not  logical"  to  suppose  that  a  peace 
policy  might  prosper  the  opposition.  (Cheers.)  Do  the 
people  love  war  more  than  peace  ?  (No  !  no  !)  Do  they 
prefer  the  hardships  of  the  camp,  the  dangers  of  the  battle 
field,  the  onus  of  taxation,  to  the  comforts,  the  pleasures, 
the  prosperity  of  peaceful  homes  ?  (No  !  no  !)  But  this 
matter  is  beyond  the  control  of  politicians.  The  great 
body  of  the  people  are  tired  of  the  war,  and  demand  peace 


289 

on  the  basis  of  existing  facts,  and  politicians  cannot 
change  their  views  in  this  respect.  If  the  men  who  now 
occupy  the  position  of  leaders  do  not  see  and  recognize 
this  fact,  they  will  be  forced  to  give  place  to  men  who  do 
see  it.  The  people  have  been  traded  and  trucked  about 
so  much  during  the  war,  by  old  political  hacks,  that  they 
have  become  suspicious  and  restive,  and  refuse  to  be  sold 
any  more. 

"Again,  in  addition  to  these  irresistible  and  sufficient 
reasons  why  the  democratic  party  should  declare  for  peace, 
is  the  palpable  common  sense  and  hard-headed  fact  that 
the  war  cannot  succeed.  We  have  been  beaten.  We 
cannot  conquer  the  South.  (Tremendous  cheering.)  A 
glance  at  all  history  would  have  told  this  before  it  was 
undertaken,  had  we  read  it  aright.  No  purely  agricul- 
tural people  in  a  state  of  revolt,  contending  for  their  do- 
mestic rights,  have  ever  yet  been  subjugated  ;  and  no 
revolted  people  who  have  been  able  to  maintain  an  inde- 
pendent government  for  a  twelvemonth  have  been  con- 
quered or  put  down.  The  last  twelvemonth  has  united 
the  South,  and  though  we  had  twice  our  power  they  could 
successfully  resist  us.  As  invaders  we  are  impotent.  To 
equalize  the  chances  of  war  the  invaders  should  possess 
ten  times  the  power,  and  every  advantage  of  position. 
That  is  not  the  case.  All  the  power  of  the  then  col- 
ossal Spanish  Empire  under  Charle  V.,  and  the  succsed- 
ding  Phillips,  failed  to  conquer  two  or  three  miserable 
Dutch  provinces,  almost  Lilliputian  in  extent  (Cries 
of  '  bravo  !')  Even  petty  and  contiguous  Portugal  expel- 
led victoriously  from  its  soil  all  the  hosts  of  the  same  still 
greaterPower.  Not  in  vain  stands  recorded  in  more  an- 
cient history  the  imperishable  record  of  Marathon  ;  and  in 
our  own  day  we  have  seen  the  miserable  Mexican  rabble 
soldiery  driving  the  best  disciplined  ^rmy  of  Europe  from 
their  soil,  because  the  latter  were  invaders. 

"  Grod  did  not  intend  that  vre  should  succeed  in  this 
war.  Had  he  intended  it  he  would  not  have  placed  in 
command  a  Lincoln — (groans  for  several  minutes,  and 
cries  of  c  Boo  !  boo  !  boo  V) — with  such  coadjutors  as  a 
Butler  or  a  Burnside.  (Renewed  groans  and  hisses,  and 
cheers  for  Vailandigham.)  We  will  not  compare  these 
men  to  a  Davis  or  a  Lee,  or  a  Stonewall  Jackson.  It  is 
not  necessary.     Mind,  character  and  capacity  will  always 


290 

evince,  declare  and  maintain  their  superiority.  These 
qualities  will  triumph  sooner  or  later,  it  matters  not  how 
far  greater  the  physical  resources  in  the  hands  of  the  op- 
posite qualities.  The  Roman  Commonwealth,  in  spite  oi 
territory,  population,  armies  and  resources,  was  destroyed 
from  wanting  any  mind  by  which  the  mind  of  Cassar  could 
be  balanced  and  encountered.  Holland  was  lost  to  Spain 
when  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  Prince  Manrico  were  su- 
perior to  all  the  viceroys  and  the  captains  the  mothei 
country  could  oppose  to  them.  The  South  American 
dependencies  were  gone  when  she  had  no  opponent  of  Bol- 
ivar. The  civil  wars  of  France,  after  every  kind  of  trial 
and  of  vicissitude,  all  closed  in  the  pre-eminence  of  Henry 
IV.,  in  head  and  heart  the  master  of  his  epoch.  The  Car- 
lists  had  not  any  match  for  Espartero.  The  Sardinian? 
had  not  any  equal  of  Radetsky.  The  same  lesson  is  im- 
pressed on  us  by  the  collision  of  Washington  and  George 
III.;  of  Charles  I.  and  Cromwell.  It  is  true  that  history 
need  not  repeat  itself,  and  that  events  are  neither  bound 
by  theories  or  precedents. 

"  In  this  connection,  we  must  refer  to  the  ludicrous  at- 
tempts that  are  made  upon  every  military  reverse  to 
attribute  the  result  to  every  other  than  the  true  cause. 
(Ha  !  ha  !)  When  a  battle  is  fought  it  is  generally  lost, 
and  then  come  the  reasons.  Sometimes  the  commanding 
general  has  omitted  to  obey  the  orders  of  his  superiors,  or 
an  obedience  to  their  orders  was  the  cause  ;  or,  again,  he 
has  moved  too  slow,  or  has  not  been  properly  supported — 
now  he  has  had  an  inferior  force,  then  an  adverse  position; 
and,  in  turn,  all  the  various  causes  to  which  military  de- 
feats are  attributable  are  served  up  to  the  credulous  peo- 
ple. We  never  hear  the  truth.  (Cry  of  (  Never/)  If  any 
know  it  none  dare  tell  it.  The  hand  of  God  is  lifted 
against  us\  His  illimitable  power  overturns  all  our  de- 
signs and  subverts  all  our  plans.  (Cry  of  [  We  want 
peace/") 

Finally,  it  cannot  oe  aeniea  that  there  are  in  the  Noith 
many  and  very  powerful  partisans  of  peace,  even  at  the 
cost  of  separation  from  the  South;  and  that  among  the 
Confederates  there  are  also  many  who  entertain  the  opin- 
ion, on  fundamental  principles,  that  the  Union  be  re-es- 
tablished. 


291 

These  precedents  being  given,  and  the  basis  on  which  a 
decorous  arrangement  might  be  commenced  between  the 
two  sections  being  stated,  I  shall  terminate  these  remarks 
with  the  project  of  the  general  treaty  which,  in  my  opin- 
ion, would  re-establish  the  good  international  relations 
throughout  the  world  respecting  the  question  of  the 
negroes. 


CHAPTER  Xin. 


Features  which  the  international  treaties  should  have  in  order  that  they 
may  be  inviolate. — It  ia  shown  that  these  features  do  not  exist  in  the  trea- 
ties which  have  been  made  for  the  prohibition  of  the  redemption. — General 
summary  of  all  the  propositions  demonstrated  in  this  work. — Doctrines 
which  result  from  them,  and  natural  applications  indicated  by  the  same. 
— Project  of  a  general  treaty  to  restore  public  right  in  the  matter  relating 
to  negroes,  satisfying  true  morality,  protecting  all  interests  created  since 
the  discovery  of  America  and  improving  civilization  in  African  soil. — 
Considerations  which  arise  out  of  the  said  project  of  treaty. — End  of  the 
work. 


To  maintain  the  inviolability  of  any  international  com- 
pact, whether  it  be  founded  on  abstract  ideas,  or  affects 
the  material  interests  of  the  contracting  parties,  it  is  ne- 
cessary that  the  experience  of  all  the  time  which  has 
elapsed  since  its  ratification  should  produce  the  absolute 
conviction  of  its  usefulness  ;  or  that  the  legitimate  bene- 
fits which  one  of  the  contracting  parties  obtains  from  it, 
be  of  such  importance  as  will  oblige  it  to  oppose  all  man- 
ner of  reforms  instigated  by  the  other  parties. 

Such  conditions,  it  is  clear,  do  not  exist,  nor  have  they 
existed  for  forty  years  back,  in  the  treaties  concerning  the 
question  of  slaves,  whatever  be  the  standing  point  from 
which  they  are  examined.  For  having  first  ruined  the 
British  colonies  in  the  Western  hemisphere,  and  subse- 
quently all  the  others  where  slavery  was  abolished,  with- 
out improving  in  the  least  the  condition  of  the  free  labor- 
ers. The  stipulations  concerning  the  negroes  in  their  re- 
spective countries,  the  vain  gratification  of  some  theories 
already  proved  fallacious,  can  no  longer  overrule  the  elo- 
quence of  facts,  nor  is  it  possible  that  the  idea  of  human 
infalibility,  of  itself  so  arrogant,  should  perpetuate  the  er- 


294 

rors  of  some  statesmen,  regardless  of  social  morality,  the 
interests  of  the  world,  and  the  peace  of  those  countries. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  I  have  endeavored  to  solve 
the  various  propositions  of  great  importance  to  the  pur- 
poses which  have  urged  me  to  this  work  ;  and  to  the  phil- 
anthropic task,  sustained  by  my  perseverance,  I  think  I 
have  succeeded  in  establishing,  on  immutable  principles, 
a  sound  basis  for  an  equitable  settlement  of  the  negro  ques- 
tion, with  the  following  data : 

First. — The  historical  demonstration  of  the  savage,  de- 
solate state  of  the  Africans,  before  the  discovery  of 
America. 

Second. — The  historical  demonstration  of  the  great 
modification  produced  in  their  unhappy  state,  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  redemption,  without  .increasing  their 
warlike  spirit,  which  had  always  been,  and  still  is,  their 
natural  propensity,  in  common  with  all  barbarous  nations. 

Third. — The  historical,  philosophical  and  legal  demon- 
stration that  the  civil  state  of  the  negroes  in  the  colonies 
is  not  that  of  slavery,  which  name  has  been  erroneously 
applied  to  it,  and  is  in  all  respects  false. 

Fourth. — The  legal  demonstration  that  the  Chinese 
contracts  to  provide  laborers  for  the  colonies,  place  those 
individuals  in  the  same  position  as  the  negroes  whom  they 
are  intended  to  substitute,  with  but  very  few  conditions 
in  their  favor,  which  are  scarcely  ever  fulfilled,  whilst 
many  that  are  against  them  are  strictly  enforced  and  car- 
ried out,  are  calculated  to  perpetuate  their  state  of  servi- 
tude and  bondage.  A  more  glaring  inconsistency  with  the 
views  of  the  English  philanthrophists,  can  hardly  be  im- 
agined, who  recommended  the  acquisition  of  Chinese  for 
the  purpose  of  enslaving  them,  though  a  civilized  and 
peaceable  people  ;  whilst  they  prohibit  the  redemption  of 
the  blacks  and  oppose  the  organization  of  their  labor, 
though  through  the  former  they  are  liberated. 

Fifth. — The  practical  and  evident  demonstration  that 
the  freedom  of  the  negroes  has  ruined  great  productive 
districts,  by  affecting  the  social  condition  of  said  individu- 
als ;  and  that  the  organized  labor,  which  is  improperly 
called  slavery,  is  the  source  of  prosperity  in  the  districts 
where  it  exists,  and  keeps  the  negroes  who  constitute  it,  in 
a  real  state  of  civilization. 

Sixth. — The  demonstrations,  in  various  shapes,  that  the 


295 

code  of  international  laws  with,  which,  it  has  "been  agreed  to 
abolish  the  redemption,  is-  demoralized  and  perverted  in  a 
manner  which  reflects  little  credit  on  the  foresight  of  the 
great  statesmen  by  whom  it  has  been  framed  ;  constituting 
all  civilized  nations  as  persecutors  of  each  other,  by  means 
of  their  cruisers  ;  authorizing  the  humiliating  and  degrad- 
ing right  of  search,  so  opposed  to  the  dignity  of  the  flags, 
so  exposed  to  great  abuses,  and  so  liable  to  bring  about 
ruptures  ;  whilst  showing  their  absolute  inefficiency  to 
carry  out  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  intended. 

Seventh. — Another  demonstration,  also  general,  with  ac- 
curate estimates  showing  that  the  disastrous  war  which  is 
now  carried  on  in  North  America  has  been  caused  by  the 
evidently  mistaken  turn  which  nations  have  given  to  the 
negro  question,  willing  to  ruin  immense  interests  solely  be- 
cause of  certain  ill  sounding,  words. 

Eighth  and  last. — An  exposition  of  the  symptoms  of 
anarchy  which  has  shown  itself  in  the  principal  cities  of 
the  Federal  Kepublic,  where  the  grossest  outrages  were 
committed  against  free  negroes,  and  a  demonstration  of  the 
dangers  to  that  Kepublic,  resulting  from  the  continuance 
of  the  war,  or  from  the  re-establishment  of  peace  if  founded 
on  the  former  laws  in  reference  to  slavery,  which  dangers 
will  not  only  be  converted  into  positive  and  disastrous 
realities,  but  will  be  common  to  all  the  colonies  where 
there  are  negroes  to  destroy  them,  unless  the  nations,  who 
are  so  deeply  interested  in  the  question,  and  who  suffer 
themselves  to  be  borne  away  by  the  turbid  current  of  false 
philanthropy,  do  not  at  once  resist  its  incessant  exigencies 
with  that  energy  which  is  recommendea  by  the  sad  expe- 
rience of  the  last  forty-five  years. 

Having  premised  these  demonstrations,  which,  consider- 
ed as  facts,  not  as  theories,  form  a  regular,  perfect,  clear 
and  convincing  body  of  documents,  we  can  now  enter  at 
once  into  the  exposition  of  the  project  of  treaty,  or  rather, 
general  agreement  which  it  would  be  advisable  for  all  na- 
tions to  adopt  who  have  an  interest  in  the  civilization  of 
the  world,  and  who  for  its  sake  have  been  wandering  in 
their  resolutions  respecting  the  negroes  ;  for  the  purpose 
of  establishing  a  jurisprudence  which  shall  be  as  harmon- 
izing as  the  intention  which  guides  them  in  their  specula- 
tions, and  as  useful  to  the  moral  and  material  interests  of 
said  nations  and  of  the  negroes  themselves,  as  is  demanded 
by  necessity  and  counselled  by  experience. 


296 

A  two-fold  humanitarian  sentiment  counselled  the  re* 
demption  of  the  negroes  when  the  New  World  was  discov- 
ered ;    although  the  transfer  of  these  individuals  to  the 
plantations  established  in  America  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  not  altogether  equitable.     By  the 
practice  established  by  said  sentiment,  many  thousands 
of  unfortunate  beings  were  benefitted.     The  Indians,  not 
having  the  power  of  endurance  to  bear  all  the  new  obliga- 
tions imposed  upon  them  by  the  civilization  introduced 
by   their   conquerors,    were   relieved   of  the   most   ardu- 
ous tasks,  these  being  laid  upon  the  negroes;  and  these 
Africans,  being  always  engaged  in  an  inhuman  and  canni- 
bal warfare  in  their  own  country,  would  have  perished  in 
their  fiendish  sacrifices  had  not  the  system  of  redemption 
been  established.     In  the  course  of  time,  with  the  desire 
to  perfect  the  basis  of  our  civilization,  another  equally 
humane  sentiment,  which   sprang   from  an   exaggerated 
levelling    principle,   advised   the   abandonment  of  those 
speculations  of  three  centuries  back,  which  were  based  on 
the  principles  of  charity  and  of  the  salvation  of  man  by 
means  of  labor.     The  realization  of  this  new  sentiment 
also  produced  its  natural  fruits;  and  whereas  those  of  the 
former  were  to  economize  human  blood,  until  then  lav- 
ished without  stint  in  horrible  hed-tombs,  and  the  im- 
provement of  immense  districts,  which  by  the  mysterious 
providence  of  God  had  until  then  been  unprofitable  to  the 
civilized  world;  those  of  the  latter,  in  opposition  to  the 
former,  restored  things  to  their  former  state,  which  proved 
detrimental  to  the  negroes  both  in  America  and  Africa, 
and  sowed  among  the  whites  the  seeds  of  so  much  discord 
and  devastation,  that  the  mind  cannot  dwell   on  them 
without  horror  and  dismay. 

This  being  stated  not  at  random  but  on  the  demonstra- 
tions already  made,  it  will  now  be  necessary  to  reconcile 
the  extreme  opinions,  in  order  that  they  may  all  meet  up- 
on a  common  centre,  to  realize  the  generous  idea  from 
which  both  sprung.  And  as  the  initiation  of  any  good 
measure  is  the  patrimony  of  none,  individuals  and  com- 
munities having  the  right  to  take  it  whenever  experience 
justifies  their  resolutions,  the  United  States  of  America, 
now  since  they  are  under  the  necessity  of  settling  their 
difficulties  in  a  general  treaty  respecting  the  institution  of 
compulsory  labor,  or  any  other  nation  more  or  less  inter- 


297 

ested  in  the  question,  should  hasten  to  adopt  the  project 
which  I  here  propose,  in  order  to  make  it  available  to  all  ; 
not  absolutely,  as  it  is  written  here,  for  I  make  no  preten- 
sions to  infallibility,  nor  do  I  imagine  that  it  is  perfect 
either  in  the  whole  or  in  its  details  ;  but  such  as  it  eman- 
ates from  the  fundamental  idea  by  which  it  was  inspired, 
and  with  such  improvements  as  others,  better  versed  in 
social  morals  and  public  rights,  may  judge  proper  and 
efficient. 

And  since,  as  a  preamble  to  said  project,  I  have  already 
said  enough  for  the  readers  of  good  faith  and  all  sensible 
people  to  know  and  sustain  the  basis  on  which  mine  rests, 
it  is  now  time  that  I  should  give  it  without  further  delay 
or  other  arguments,  in  the  following  terms  : 

Article  1. — Experience  having  demonstrated  in  an  un- 
questionable manner  that  the  institution  of  compulsory 
labor  of  the  negroes,  which  is  called  slavery,  is  eminently 
christian  and  civilizing,  with  the  exception  of  the  errors 
of  its  nomenclature,  which  is  of  pagan  origin  and  should 
disappear  forever  from  among  enlightened  nations,  as 
also  those  vices  or  abuses  of  said  institution  which,  to  a 
certain  extent,  justify  the  exertions  made  for  many  years 
to  abolish  it,  the  Powers  who  have  signed  this  common 
pact  agree,  willingly  and  with  perfect  harmony,  in  declar- 
ing the  institution  of  organized  labor  of  the  negroes  to  be 
legal  in  all  nations,  states,  colonies,  provinces,  territories, 
districts,  or  plantations  which  may  require  it,  or  desire  to 
use  it;  the  effects  of  this  declaration  being  subject  only  and 
exclusively  to  the  administrative  authority  of  the  respective 
localities  which  may  avail  themselves  of  it,  or  to  the  su- 
preme authority  of  the  countries  or  states  respectively, 
in  accordance  with  the  political  organization  of  said 
localities. 

Art.  2. — It  being  contrary  to  the  common  law  of  na- 
tions for  any  Power  to  exert  any  authority  or  influence, 
to  which  it  has  no  recognized  right,  which  shall  in  any 
manner  interfere  with  the  individual  liberty,  the  customs, 
or  the  laws  of  an  independent  nation  which  has  not  soli- 
cited from  it  such  direction  or  interference,  the  subscribing 
Powers  recognize,  collectively  and  individually,  the  right 
of  the  others  to  establish/in  their  political  and  mercantile 
relations  with  other  independent  Powers,  such  rules  and 
proceedings  as  they  may  deem  most  expedient,  provided 


298 

always,  that  the  lawful  interests  of  civilized  nations  be 
not  thereby  injured.  The  subscribing  Powers  having  also 
agreed  in  declaring  that  the  prohibition  of  the  redemption 
of  negroes  on  the  African  coasts  was  the  result  of  a  griev- 
ous error,  said  redemption  being,  in  fact,  a  truly  humane 
and  merciful  system  which  affords  the  only  means  of  intro- 
ducing the  light  of  christian  civilization  in  those  unhappy 
countries  where  darkness  has  so  long  reigned,  the  aforesaid 
Powers  also  declare  that  the  negroes  of  Africa,  Asia  and 
Oceanica,  shall  be  at  full  liberty  to  sell  their  slaves  to  the 
contractors  who  may  desire  to  redeem  them  ;  and  all  the 
free  individuals  of  the  places  above  mentioned  shall  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  placing  themselves,  and  all  such  persons 
of  their  families  as  may  be  dependent  on  them,  under  the 
system  of  organized  labor,  such  as  it  will  be  explained  in 
the  following  articles. 

Art.  3. — Whereas  the  falsity  of  the  present  nomencla- 
ture applied  to  the  institution  of  the  organized  labor  of 
the  negroes,  will  become  evident  to  all  by  a  comparison 
between  any  treatise  of  ancient  law,  and  the  regulations  of 
the  present  times,  or  those  which  have  ruled  in  any  of  the 
colonies  wherein  such  labor  has  been  practiced  from  the 
discovery  of  America  down  to  the  present  day,  the  sub- 
scribing nations  agree  to  prohibit,  and  do  hereby  forbid 
that  in  future  the  laboring  negroes  be  called  slaves;  and 
they  agree  also  in  declaring  that  the  so-called  slave  trade 
is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  redemption  of  slaves  and 
prisoners,  who,  from  the  moment  that  they  are  saved  by 
this  merciful  and  humane  measure,  enter  at  once  into  a 
state  of  civilization  far  superior  to  their  former  free  con- 
dition, before  they  lost  it  through  the  tyranny  of  their 
rulers  or  their  conquerors.  s 

On  this  account,  the  negroes  destined  to  labor,  as  the 
foundation  of  the  civilization  they  are  to  acquire,  shall  be 
designated  by  the  name  of  redeemed  laborers;  and  so  it 
shall  be  written  in  all  documents  of  cession  or  transmis- 
sion, which  hitherto  have  been  denominated  inheritance 
and  sale  ;  in  the  requisitions  of  cimmarones  (runaway 
slaves,)  whose  name  shall  hereafter  be  fugitives  ;  in  the 
citations  and  summonses  of  the  Courts*,  and  in  all  the 
legal  acts  in  which  the  preservation  of  the  former  no- 
menclature might  be  offensive  to  humanity,  or  render 
the  effects  of  this  treaty  inefficient. 


/ 


299 

Art.  4. — The  redemption  of  negroes  will  be  carried  on 
in  those  districts  where  it  was  formerly  done,  without  re- 
strictions or  hindrance  which  may  result  to  the  injury  of 
the  redeemers  of  good  faith,  whether  they  belong  to  a 
known  company  or  carry  on  the  undertaking  on  their  own 
account.  Of  course  in  such  districts  of  said  localities  as 
shall  have  been  organized  into  a  state  of  civilization,  so 
that  the  redemption  should  be  contrary  to  its  local  legis- 
lature, it  shall  be  considered  illegal  to'  re-establish  in  the 
same  the  former  customs  of  desolation  and  tyranny  ;  and 
in  such  cases,  (which  will  not  be  likely  to  occur,  as  the 
interests  of  the  speculators  would  suffice  to  keep  them 
away  from  such  places,  when  it  would  be  so  much  easier 
to  obtain  their  laborers  at  other  points,)  the  interested 
nations  might  establish  an  absolute  or  relative  prohibition, 
as  might  seem  best  in  agreement  with  the  native  authori- 
ties of  the  said  districts,  and  under  the  vigilance  of  all 
the  Consuls.  The  Consuls  shall  also  see  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  regulations  which  shall  be  established  for  the 
internal  order  of  the  contracting  vessels,  which  regula- 
tions shall  stipulate  the  number  of  negroes  that  each  ves- 
sel may  carry,  according  to  its  tonnage,  and  the  econo- 
mical and  medical  attendance  which  shall  be  given  to  the 
negroes  during  the  passage  from  their  country  to  the  port 
to  which  the  vessel  is  consigned. 

Art.  5. — In  order  that  selfish  personal  interest  may  in 
no  case  interfere  with  the  eminently  Christian  end  which 
the  contracting  nations  propose  to  obtain  in  declaring  the 
redemption  of  negroes  to  be  free,  and  taking  into  account 
at  the  same  time  the  meritorious  act  which  the  masters 
perform  in  educating,  by  means  of  labor  and  in  behalf  of 
the  civilization  of  the  world,  people  who  are  so  notoriously 
ignorant  and  in  many  places  cannibals,  the  redemption  is 
to  be  made  in  the  countries  of  the  negroes  under  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  : —  / 

First. — That  the  new  civil  state  of  the  redeemed  negroes 
be  permanent,  until  by  means  of  instalments,  or  by  pay- 
ing the  whole  amount  at  once,  they  shall  refund  to  their 
employers  the  price  of  their  redemption,  in  the  sam« 
amount  which  the  redeemers  shall  have  received  and  no 
more  ;  as  the  instruction  which  the  negroes  have  acquired 
to  be  useful  to  themselves  and  to  societv  in  the  future,  is 
to  be  considered  compensated  by  the  return  of  their  labor 


300 

until  they  shall  have  emancipated  themselves  from  it. 
With  the  perpetuity  of  forced  labor  until  the  laborer  shall 
restore  the  amount  of  his  redemption,  not  only  does  the 
master  recover  the  capital  invested  to  acquire  said  laborer 
without  any  interest,  but  having  the  certainty  of  redeem- 
ing another,  without  additional  disbursements,  in  exchange 
for  the  one  who  emancipates  himself,  he  will  not  inhumanly 
overwork  him,  as  he  might  be  inclined  to  do  if  it  was  in- 
tended to  liberate  the  laborers  unconditionally  after  a 
certain  number  of  years.  And  bearing  in  mind  that  the 
civilization  of  the  Africans  could  not  be  effected,  for  the 
purposes  which  will  be  mentioned  hereafter,  unless  they 
continue  in  this  state  for  a  certain  number  of  years,  even 
if  by  their  ,good  fortune  they  could  emancipate  themselves 
before  the  expiration  of  that  time  ;  and  considering  also 
that  the  frequent  renovation  of  laborers  on  the  plantations 
might,  cause  to  the  owners  great  losses,  both  on  account 
of  the  dangers  to  which  the  negroes  are  exposed  by  the 
change  of  climate,  and  for  the  loss  of  labor  incurred  by 
the  first  rudiments  of  their  instruction,  it  will  be  optional 
with  the  master  to  consent  or  not  to  the  emancipation  of 
his  laborers,  before  the  expiration  of  ten  years  from  the 
time  of  their  redemption. 

Second.-r-The  emancipated  negroes  shall  not  be  able  to 
exact,  as  an  absolute  right,  the  privilege  of  remaining  in 
the  country  wherein  they  have  served  ;  this  right  shall 
always  be  subservient  to  the  political  or  administrative 
locall  authorities  of  said  territories.  But  they  will  have 
the  right  to  be  conveyed  back  to  their  native  land,  at  the 
expense  of  the  respective  Governments,  and  on  the  condi- 
tions which  will  be  hereinafter  mentioned  ;  and  this  right 
shall  not  be  limited  nor  deferred  on  any  account,  unless  it 
be  by  war,  declared  epidemic,  absolute  impossibility 
through  temporary  want  of  means,  or  other  unforeseen 
cause. 

Third. — The  negroes  shall  submit  to  the  work  imposed 
upon  them  in  conformity  to  the  regulations  established  to 
that  effect  in  the  countries  to  which  they  shall  go ;  but 
the  labor  shall  not  last  more  than  twelve  hours  each  day, 
with  the  corresponding  time  of  rest,  in  ordinary  times, 
and  sixteen  hours  during  the  harvest  or  other  urgent  work 
in  which  it  is  customary  to  reduce  the  hours  of  rest  to 
one- third  of  the    astronomical  day.     They  will  also  be 


/ 


301 

subject  to  the  penalties  established  in  the  special  ordinan- 
ces of  their  institution  for  the  offenses  therein  specified, 
and,  in  conformity  with  common  right,  shall  be  subject  to 
the  penal  laws  of  the  country  for  all  transgressions  which 
do  not  come  under  that  head.  Bancroft  Library 

Fourth. — Considering  that  the  white  laborers  of  civilized 
nations  work  at  least  as  many  hours  as  are  fixed  for  the 
redeemed  negroes,  for  a  trifling  remuneration,  which  hardly 
suffices  to  supply  the  most  urgent  necessaries  of  life,  as 
with  it  they  have  to  support  themselves  and  their  families, 
pay  house  rent,  clothing,  and  the  expenses  of  sickness, 
besides  laying  aside  wherewith  to  provide  for  their  sustain- 
ance  when  they  are  out  of  employment,  which  in  field 
work  frequently  occurs  in  the  winter  season,  and  taking 
into  consideration  also  that  the  redeemed  negroes  are  ex- 
empt from  similar  straits,  because  their  masters,  besides 
advancing  a  large  capital  for  their  moral  and  material 
improvement,  furnish  them  with  lodging  and  clothing, 
support  their  families,  take  care  of  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, attend  them  in  their  sickness  ;  and,  in  iine,  provide 
for  all  their  wants.  The  said  negroes  during  all  the  time 
that  they  remain  in  the  institution  of  organized  labor 
shall  not  ueceive  any  wages  for  their  services.  But  con- 
sidering also  that  the  institution  is  to  be  truly  charitable 
and  useful  for  the  civilization  of  the  negroes — firstly,  in 
the  countries  wherein  the  labor  is  organized,  and  subse- 
quently in  their  native  lands,  as  will  be  stated  hereafter; 
considering  also  that  the  return  of  the  price  of  their  re- 
demption, besides  being  just  to  the  masters,  will  be  a  sti- 
mulus to  the  negroes,  and  an  encouragement  to  their  in- 
dustry and  love  of  mechanical  labors;  and  as,  without 
said  return,  the  negro  could  not  emancipate  himself,  both 
the  masters  and  the  local  authorities  shall  endeavor  to  fa- 
cilitate to  the  redeemed  laborers  the  means  of  acquiring 
the  price  of  their  emancipation;  the  former  by  teaching 
them  some  profitable  employement  in  the  extra  hours  of 
rest,  when  the  work  is  limited  to  twelve  hours  per  day,  or 
by  giving  them  plots  of  land,  wherein  to  raise  vegetables 
or  live  stock,  the  proceeds  of  which  shall  be  their  own 
property;  and  the  latter  by  establishing  municipal  mea- 
sures to  raise  a  redemption  fund  destined  to  the  efficient 
assistance  of  the  well  behaved  and  notoriously  industrious 
negroes.     For  the  same  reasons  which  were  given  for  fix- 


902 


ing  the  minimum  of  the  time  of  the  forced  labor  of  ne- 
groes at  ten  years,  the  laborers  will  not  be  allowed  to  he- 
gin  to  ransom  themselves  until  after  five  years'  service; 
but,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  ransoming,  after  the  lapse  of 
said  five  years,  the  negroes  shall  be  at  liberty  to  begin  to 
deposit  in  a  savings  bank,  which  may  be  established  in 
each  estate,  with  the  intervention  of  the  local  syndic,  any 
sum  they  may  be  able  to  spare,  however  small  or  large  it 
may  be,  from  the  first  day  of  their  redemption  until  the 
ransom  is  allowed  them;  which  ransom  they  can  pay  in 
instalments  of  twenty-five  dollars.  From  the  many  facil- 
ities offered  for  self-emancipation,  it  will  be  very  evident 
that  those  who,  at  a  certain  time,  have  not  emancipated 
themselves  from  forced  labor,  by  returning  the  amount  of 
their  redemption  money,  are  not  competent  to  enter  the 
condition  of  free  laborers,  owing  to  some  organic  defect  in 
their  nature. 

Art.  6. — With  the  view  of  making  the  redemption  use- 
ful, not  only  to  the  negroes  whom  an  inhuman  pratice  sa- 
crifices to  the  barbarity  of  their  own  rulers,  if  the  charity 
of  the  enlightened  nations  did  not  come  to  their  rescue, 
but  also  to  the  lands  where  they  may  live  as  forced  labor- 
ers, and  those  they  may  inhabit  after  being  emancipated, 
in  all  the  plantations  where  there  are  redeemed  negroes, 
certain  alternate  hours  shall  be  fixed  on  feast  days,  to  give 
them  oral  instruction,  both  civil  and  religious,  suitable  to 
their  capacity  and  nature.  Said  instruction  shall  refer 
more  particularly  to  the  principles  of  social  morality  em- 
bodied in  the  Christian  religion,  each  nation  according  to 
their  catholic  or  protestant  faith,  as  all  those  who  may 
sign  this  compact  agree  in  the  common  spirit  of  the  Holy 
Gospel.  And,  as  there  are,  besides  the  laborers  of  the 
plantations,  others,  destined  to  domestic  service,  or  to  the 
trades  in  which  their  respective  masters  are  engaged,  the 
authorities  of  each  country  will  see  that  the  masters  of 
the  said  workmen  oblige  them  to  attend  church,  even  be- 
fore they  know  the  language;  making  them  understand 
the  principles  of  religion  and  the  meaning  of  the  ceremo- 
nies which  they  see  performed  in  the  church  they  attend. 

Art.  7. — It  being  a  commendable  purpose  and  an  esen- 
tially  moral  duty  of  the  contracting  nations  to  modify  the 
ignominious  state  of  men  in  a  savage  state  in  the  districts 
where  the  redemption  is  carried  on,  they  take  upon  them- 


303 

selves,  now  and  forever,  while  it  shall  be  necessary,  the 
obligation  of  forming  civilizing  establishments,  by  way  of 
experiment,  on  the    borders  of  the  said  districts.     With 
this  end,  and  taking  into  consideration  the  situation  of  the 
respective  colonies,  and  also  the  geographical  interests  of 
the  possessions  which  each  civilized  country  may  have  con- 
tiguous to  the  country  of  the  negroes,  all  the  aforesaid 
nations  will  agree  for  the  purpose  of  designating  the  dis- 
tricts where  the  experiment  of  each  shall  be  made.     This 
fundamental  operation  being  carried  out  with  the  most 
perfect  harmony  between  said  contracting  parties,  each 
one  will  take  to  the  district  which  it  intends  to  civilize  a 
sufficient  number  of  laborers  already  emancipated  from 
forced  labor;  endeavoring  that  the  sexes  shall  be  in  equal 
number,  or,  at  least,  that  one  third  shall  be  female;  which 
laborers,  after  laying  out  the  locality  of  the  colony  to  be 
established  and  settled,  under  the  scientific  direction  of 
their  protectors,  will  endeavor  to  draw  to  them,  by  means 
of  commerce  and  a  prudent   behavior,   the  friendship  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  vicinity  who  may  frequent  the  co- 
lony.    In  order  that  this  experiment  may  not  be  useless, 
much  care  and  a  special  knowledge  of  the  land  selected 
will  be  needed;  endeavoring  to  have  them  near  the  more 
quiet  and  less  warlike  tribes,  and  prefering  the  localities 
which  offer  natural  means  of  communication  with  the  in- 
terior of  the  country,  such  as  navigable  rivers,  open  val- 
leys, easily  accessible  mountains,  and,  above  all,  a  healthy 
climate  and  commodious  harbors.     The  civilizing  colonies 
being  thus  founded  in  the  countries   of  the   negroes,  in 
such  a  manner  that  their  redemption  by  labor  may  pro- 
duce the  fruit  which  the  civilized  world  must  expect,  and 
which  no  doubt  it  has  all  this  time  wished  in  vain  to  reap 
from  the  absolute  prohibition  of  the  redemption,  we  shall 
arrive  at  last,  sooner  or  later,  at  the  desired  end, which  is  to 
open  to  commerce  and  to  social  intercourse  with  the  world, 
that  race  which  now  gives  rise  to  serious  physiological 
doubts,  owing  to  their  continued  state  of  barbarism;  and 
the  most  susceptible  philanthropy,  if  it  be  in  good  faith, 
will  find  nothing  to  object   to,  and  much  to  applaud,  iu 
the  new  attitude  of  the  subscribing  parties  to  this  com- 
pact. 

Art.  8. — As  the  discipline  and  good  order,  as  well  as 
the  material  existence  of  said  colonies,  might  frequently 


304 

by  endangered  if  left  unguarded,  each  nation  or  people 
which  have  founded  such  settlements,  according  to  the 
preceding  article,  shall  keep  a  naval  station  to  protect  their 
respective  colonies,  and  shall  take  an  active  part  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  colonial  government,  should  they  deem 
it  proper,  if  all  the  contracting  parties  agree  to  it.  As 
the  cruisers  will  be  utterly  useless  when  this  treaty  is  es- 
tablished as  an  international  law,  it-will  be  easy  to  estab- 
lish said  stations  without  additional  expenses  to  the  res- 
pective nations.  -  In  the  event  of  war  between  any  of  the 
contracting  nations,  the  said  colonies  will  be  considered 
neutral  ground,  and  their  naval  stations,  on  proving  that 
they  are  such,  will  be  exempt  from  all  armed  aggression, 
even  should  those  respectively  belonging  to  the  belligerent 
parties  happen  to  meet.  The  nations  which  thus  protect 
the  colonies  shall  furthermore  send  to  them  religious  mis- 
sions, to  strengthen  and  encourage  the  Christian  faith 
among  the  negroes  who  have  acquired  it  during  their  term 
of  forced  labor. 

Art.  9. — Both  for  the  purpose  of  confining  the  colored 
population  within  the  limits  of  the  political  and  economical 
views  of  the  respective  Governments,  and  to  encourage 
and  extend  civilization  in  Africa,  it  will  be  the  right  of 
said  Governments  to  continue  sending  periodically  on  their 
own  account  to  the  civilizing  colonies  the  negroes  eman- 
cipated from  forced  labor  in  their  respective  jurisdictions. 
And  in  order  that  this  may  not  be  burdensome  to  the 
public  revenue,  said  Governments  may  establish  and  col- 
lect a  moderate  contribution,  not  to  exceed  eight  dollars, 
for  each  redeemed  negro  that  shall  enter  their  dominions, 
to  form  a  fund  to  defray  the  expenses  of  those  voyages, 
and  all  the  charitable  demands  which  will  naturally  arise, 
wherever  use  shall  be  made  of  the  institution  of  forced 
labor  of  the  negroes  in  exchange  for  their  redemption. 

Art.  10. — Each  country  shall  be  free  in  accordance  with 
its  customs,  its  laws  and  organization,  to  make  the  regu- 
lations by  which  the  negroes  are  to  be  governed  in  their 
labor  ;  submitting  them,  however,  to  the  rules  already 
established  in  this  project  of  a  general  treaty,  which  are 
binding  upon  all.  As  the  object  which  is  aimed  at  in  this 
compact  is  eminently  Christian  and  civilizing,  it  would 
be  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  of  the  contracting  parties 
will  so  far  abuse  its  authority  as  to  make  said  ordinances 


305 

contrary  to  the  humane  spirit  of  enlightened  nations, 
therefore  the  discipline  and  penalties  which  are  to  be  im- 
posed on  the  negroes  will  also  be  left  to  the  conscience  of 
each  people,  respectively. 

Experience  has  already  shown  that  the  change  of  name, 
and  the  prospect  of  an  absolute  freedom,  more » or  less  re- 
mote, in  places  where  their  gradual  emancipation  has  been 
attempted,  has  suddenly  inspired  the  negroes  with  ex- 
aggerated ideas  respecting  their  future  rights,  making 
them  at  once  arrogant  and  presumptuous,  and  unfitting 
them  for  all  systematic  labor.  For  this  reason,  and  be- 
cause the  re-establishment  of  justice  and  truth  in  the 
name  of  the  institution  and  in  the  objects  of  the  redemp- 
tion can  in  nowise  alter  or  diminish  the  gratitude  and 
obedience  which  the  negroes  owe  to  their  benefactors,  nor 
their  obligations  as  to  labor,  the  local  authorities  of  the 
places  where  said  institution  exists,  as  well  as  the  owners 
of  estates  and  all  masters  in  general,  will  have  the  right 
to  avail  themselves  of  all  the  rigor  authorized  by  this 
compact  and  by  the  local  municipal  ordinances,  to  remove 
and  repress  the  effects  of  that  false  interpretation  of  their 
new  civil  state,  among  the  negroes  who  hitherto  have  been 
called  slaves,  and  shall  hereafter  be  called  redeemed 
laborers,  in  conformity  to  what  has  been  expressed  in 
article  3. 

Art.  11. — The  children  which  may  be  born  to  the 
negroes,  in  the  countries  where  the  institution  of  organized 
labor  exists,  will  remain  in  the  same  condition  as  their 
mothers,  and  in  all  respects  subject  to  the  effects  of  this 
compact.  Marriage  shall  be  indissoluble,  and  the  children 
shall  not  be  separated  from  their  parents  against  their 
will  before  the  males  have  attained  fourteen  years  and 
the  females  twelve.  .When  the  mother  emancipates  her- 
self from  forced  labor,  her  children  under  four  years  will 
also  be  emancipated  without  any  compensation,  provided 
that  their  mother  takes  them  with  her,  whether  to  the 
civilizing  colony  or  to  her  new  residence,  if  she  is  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  place  where  she  was  civilized.  The 
emancipation  of  the  minors  may  be  effected  at  any  time, 
after  they  have  attained  the  age  above  stated,  of  fourteen 
and  twelve  years,  provided  they  pay  their  master  an 
amount  equal  to  the  average  cost  of  the  redemption  of  an 
African,  and  shall  set  out  for  the  civilizing  colony  in  the 


306 

same  manner  as  the  other  emancipated  negroes.  No  dis- 
position is  made  at  present  as  to  the  freedom  of  unborn 
children,  as  the  unreflecting  might  expect,  because  the 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart  and  of  the  workings  of  self- 
interest  shows  plainly  that  such  a  measure  would  involve, 
perhaps  irremediably,  in  some  places,  serious  dangers  for 
the  mothers  when  pregnant,  as  well  as  for  the  infants 
during  their  period  of  nursing  and  before  they  are  in  a  fit 
state  to  do  service. 

If,  owing  to  some  extraordinary  cause,  either  of  the  Go- 
vernments should  be  unable  to  send  to  the  model  colony 
the  laborers  emancipated  from  forced  labor  in  their  juris- 
diction, it  shall,  in  lieu  thereof,  adopt  the  necessary  mea- 
sures, which  are  to  be  previously  consigned  in  the  local 
regulations,  in  order  that  said  emancipated  negroes  shall 
not  live  in  idleness,  but  work  by  the  day  or  establish  some 
known  and  useful  business.  Vagrancy  and  idleness  must 
be  absolutely  proscribed  from  all  countries  which  are  to  be 
the  schools  of  civilization  for  the  redeemed  laborers,  who 
will,  in  their  turn,  convey  to  their  native  land  the  ideas 
and  habits  of  labor,  as  a  commencement  and  end  of  their 
future  state,  which  will  be  infinitely  superior  to  their  pre- 
sent condition. 

I  think  that  the  points  on  which  I  have  touched  will 
prove  sufficient  to  lay  as  foundation,  as  good  faith  is  to 
preside   over   the   treaties  which  are  proposed.     The  in- 
terests of  moral  civilization  are  herein  consulted,  as  slavery 
legally  and  virtually  disappears,  and  the  labor  imposed  on 
the  negroes  through  their  redemption  is  easily  redeemable, 
as  the  price  of  self-emancipation  is  greatly  reduced  by  the 
increased   facility   of  procuring   other  laborers,    and  the 
masters  and  overseers  can  place  great  facilities  for  that 
object  within  reach  of  the  honest  and  industrious  negroes. 
The  material  interests  of  the  lands  which  indispensably 
require  the  labor  of  the  negroes  are  likewise  secured — the 
act  of  emancipation  being    in   no   manner  prejudicial  to 
the  necessities  of  labor,  as  the  free  and  uninterrupted  re- 
demption will   always   supply  an   abundance  of  laborers 
from  Africa,  to  take  the  place  of  those  who  emancipate 
themselves  ;  and  the  remuneration  which  the  masters  re- 
ceive from  the  emancipated  laborers  will  enable  them  to 
procure  others. 

The  idea  of  establishing  civilizing  colonies,  which  has 


307 

been  proved  practicable  by  the  model  colony  in  Liberia, 
would,  of  itself,  suffice  to  incline  the  Governments  in- 
terested, to  favor  the  speedy  realization  of  the  idea  herein 
set  forth.  From  the  creation  of  the  world,  down  to  the 
present  day,  the  countries  where  the  redemption  is  carried 
on  have  not  taken  a  single  step  towards  civilization  ; 
therefore,  if  the  moral  end  which  humanity  proposes  to 
itself  is  the  perfection  of  all  the  human  race,  we  cannot 
see  why  any  opposition  should  be  offered  to  the  realization 
of  this  generous  idea  in  those  unfortunate  countries. 

This  project  of  treaty  presents  still  another  phase  by 
which  it  will  specially  recommend  itself  to  the  nations :  it 
is  useful  to  all  parties,  it  interferes  with  no  one's  rights ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  protects  and  encourages  the  interests 
of  all ;  and,  furthermore,  as  there  is  no  reason  nor  induce- 
ment to  violate  its  strict  execution,  it  will  re-establish,  in 
this  branch  of  public  law,  the  dignity  and  inviolability  of 
which  it  now  needs  ;  and  will  secure  peace  where  it  has 
been  perturbed,  and  where  it  is  now  imperilled  by  the 
negro  question. 

It  lacks  an  essential  condition,  and  that  is — sufficient 
importance  in  the  author  to  secure  for  it  a  favorable  re- 
ception ;  but  God  frequently  makes  use  of  insignificant 
instruments  to  accomplish  great  works  ;  and,  although  I 
am  not  so  presumptuous  as  to  imagine  that  I  am  one  of 
the  favored  ones  chosen  to  work  a  radical  transformation 
in  the  human  mind  with  regard  to  these  matters,  who  can 
tell  how  far  my  counsel  may  not  be  productive  of  good  if 
it  is  received  in  a  kindly  spirit  and  honored  with  a  careful 
consideration  ? 

The  End. 


INDEX. 


Page, 

Chapter  T. — The  origin  of  de  slavery  in  primitive  times. — Its  various 
characters  among  t!ie  heathens. — Its  successive  features  from  the 
first  appearance  of  Christianity  in  the  countries  of  the  negroes,  as 
those  countries  were  successively  discovered. — Cause  for  redeeming 
in  those  countries,  and  the  reason  justifying  the  forced  labor  exact- 
ed from  the  redeemed  negroes  in  America. — The  existence  of  can- 
nibalism among  the  people  of  that  race  and  among  the  greater 
portion  of  savage  nations  shown  by  abundant  historical  facts  and 
other  proofs  as  regards  Asia,  Africa  and  America,  from  the  most 
remote  times  down  to  the  present  day 

Chapter  II. — Respective  condition  of  the  nations  of  Eastern  Europe 
when  discoveries  in  Africa  and  Asia  were  made  towards  the  South 
and  East. — Why  the  civilization  of  said  countries  was  not  atempted 
by  means  of  conquest,  and  why  the  enslaving  of  their  inhabitants, 
for  the  purpose  of  civilizing  them,  by  cultivating  the  New  "World, 
was  peferred. — First  privileges  granted  to  introduce  african  slaves 
into  America. — These  privileges  were  obtained  by  the  Flemish  and 
the  Genoese,  anda  fterwards  by  the  Portuguese,  the  Dutch,  the 
French,  and  the  English,  until  the  famous  contract  of  Asiento  was 
ma  le. — Losses  suffered  in  this  undertaking  by  some  Spanish  com- 
panies and  private  individuals,  arising  from  ttieir  humanity. — 
Beginning  of  Spanish  legislation  in  reference  to  black  slaves. — Its 
eminently  moral  and  protective  character. — Obstacles  which  were 
opposed  to  the  introduction  of  slaves  in  the  New  World,  and  for 
what  object 35 

Chapter  III. — The  ideas  of  the  ancient  laws  in  matter  of  slaves  excite 
puclic  sentiment  against  modern  slavery. — Radical  difference  which 
exist  between  the  legislation  of  the  heathens  and  that  of  our  times 
respecting  said  institution. — Manner  in  which  the  Spaniards  practi- 
cally exhibited  this  difference,  from  the  time  that  they  introduced 
slavery  into  their  colonies. — Religious  principles  which  predominat- 
ed in  the  formation  of  their  laws. — Royal  letters  patent  and  cir- 
cular instructions  to  the  Indies  dated  31st  May,  1789,  respecting 
the  education,  treatment  and  occupation  of  the  slaves. — Comments 
made  on  the  preceding  document  for  the  purpose  of  doing  away 
errors  of  great  magnitude 45 

Chapter  IV. — The  change  which  took  place  in  the  political  circums- 
tances of  the  New  World  in  the  beginning  of  the  XIX  century,  sug- 
gested, many  years  afterwards,  some  alteration  in  the  legislation 
concerning  the  slaves. — Suggestions  to  this  effect  made  to  the 
Spanish  government  by  the  interested  parties. — Scrupulous  investi- 
gations ordered  to  be  made  before  these  suggestions  were  acted 
upon. — New  ordinances  for  the  regulation  of  the  slaves,  issued  on 


310 

Page. 
the  14th  of  November,  1842, — Extraordinary  circumstances  demand 
some  strictness  in  the  Island  of  Cuba. — Conspiracy  of  the  negroes 
against  the  whites  in  said  Island,  plotted  and  conducted  by  the 
English  consul :  an  official  record  of  the  process  is  inserted  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  assertion. — Excepcional  measures  then  dictated 
for  the  regulation  of  the  slaves — They  are  not  practically  applied, 
the  authorities  being  swayed  by  the  impulse  of  humanity  that  gov- 
erned the  former  laws,  which  after  all,  prevailed  at  that  time,  and 
are  still  in  force 65 

Chapter  V. — The  reason  why  the  legislation  and  proceeding  of  the 
Spanish  Colonies  are  taken  in  this  work  as  the  type  of  the  legisla- 
tion and  proceedings  concerning  the  slavery  of  negroes. — How  the 
free  people  of  color  live  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  where  slavery 
exists,  and  in  Santo  Domingo  where  it  is  abolished. — Domestic 
service  by  hire  in  said  countries,  both  of  slave  and  free  servants. — 
Other  clases  of  service  public  and  private. — The  slaves  on  the  plan- 
tations.— Character  of  their  services,  and  comparison  with  the  ser- 
vices of  the  white  people  in  free  nations. — Means  which  negro  slaves 
have  of  redeeming  themselves  from  labor  in  the  Spanish  possessions. 
— Corporeal  punishments:  its  legislation  and  application. — The 
punishment  inflicted  to  the  negro  slaves  and  that  applied  to  white 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  some  of  the  Euiopean  nations,  especially  in 
England,  compared. — Legal  means  which  delinquent  slaves  have  to 
escape  excessive  chatisement. — Trustees  for  the  protection  of  slaves: 
their  authority  and  its  application. — Right  of  the  slaves  to  change 
their  master  for  just  cause  and  in  accordance  with  law. — Rules 
which,  in  the  Spanish  possessions,  govern  in  such  cases. — Some 
historical  considerations  on  the  wrongs  to  which  the  beneficent 
institution  of  negro  labor  has  been  subjected 85 

Chapter  VI. — The  condition  of  the  laboring  negroes  in  America  is 
not  that  of  slavery,  which  nomenclature  has  been  erroneously  ap-  . 

plied  to  it,  and  is  utterly  false. — Exertions  of  the  abolitionists  to 
destroy  negro  labor. — Investigation  on  the  origin  of  this  idea. — 
There  is  no  truly  moral  principle  practically  involved  in  the  prohi- 
bition of  the  redemption  of  negroes,  which  is  called  the  slave  trade. 
— The  abolition  of  slavery  such  as  it  has  hitherto  been  effected,  is 
opposed  to  the  civilization  of  the  negroes,  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
Colonies,  and  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  world. — Origin  of  the 
abolitionist  idea,  its  propagation  and  diffusion  in  official  spheres. — 
The  London  Philanthropical  Society. — Its  agents  and  its  organized 
propagation. — First  concession  made  by  Spain  to  England  as  to  the 
abolition  of  slavery :  additional  articles  to  the  treaty  of  5th  July 
1814.— Spirit  of  the  treaty  of  September  23,  1817,  to  abolish  the 
slave  trade.— Its  effects  are  contrary  to  the  moral  end  with  which 
it  was  apparently  made. — Treaty  of  1835 103 

Chapter  VII. — The  system  of  apprenticeship  instituted  by  the  En- 
glish in  their  Colonies  by  way  of  experiment  as  a  substitute  for 
slavery. — Character  of  said  system  and  its  negative  results. — Consi- 
derations on  the  political  ends  which  suggested  such  a  system. — 
Uniform  efforts  of  all  the  English  agents  to  annihilate  the  slavery 
of  negroes  in  the  other  Colonies. — This  system  propagated  in  France. 
— The  Colonies  are  officially  consulted  as  to  the  freedom  of  the  ' 

slaves. — Three  systems  are  proposed  by  the  French  government  to 
tis  Colonies. — Analysis  and  judgment  of  said  systems. — Replies  of 
the  French  Colonies  to  the  consultation  of  the  government. — The 
Republic  of  1848  decrees  the  freedom  of  the  slaves. — Operation  of 
the  abolitionists  in  Spain. — A  ship  of  war  manned  by  negroes  is 
permanently  stationed  in  the  harbor  of  Havana. — The  press  is  set 


311 

Page. 

to  work. — They  succeed  in  obtaining  that  the  Spanish  government 
should  consult  the  Colonies  on  some  points  of  abolitionism. — Evi- 
dent tendencies  to  make  the  Island  of  Cuba  a  State  similar  to  that 
of  Hati. — Charges  and  defences  of  the  facts  stated. — Remarkable 
letter  of  Lord  Howden  to  Mr.  Corbin  :  some  erroneous  statements 
containing  offensive  allusions  to  Spain  are  rectified. — New  steps 
taken  by  said  minister  at  Madrid  to  obtain  the  unconditional  free- 
dom of  all  the  people  of  color  in  the  Island  of  Cuba. — Lord  Pal- 
merston's  dispatch  to  Lord  Howden  on  the  same  subject. — System 
of  diplomatic  and  parliamentary  recriminations. — To  introduce  dis- 
order in  the  colonial  possessions  of  Spain,  the  right  of  search  on 
the  estates  is  proposed. — Important  considerations  on  all  these  mat- 
ters.— The  English  recommend  the  substitution  of  the  negroes  by 
contracted  Chinese. — Reply  of  the  United  States  to  said  proposition.  133 

Chapter  VIII. — Remarks  on  the  unskillful  manner  in  which  the  trea- 
ties that  prohihed  the  redemption  of  the  negroes  were  drawn  up. — 
The  prohibition  of  the  redemption  is  opposed  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery :  this  proposition  demonstrated. — The  treaties  now  in  force 
in  these  matters  are  also  opposed  to  the  liberal  tendencies  and 
ideas  of  progress  which  may  have  originated  them. — Historic  re- 
sults produced  by  this  prohibition  in  countries  peopled  by  negroes. 
— The  bloody  and  already  famous  scenes  in  Dahomey. — Disastrous 
effects  of  said  treaties  in  the  slave  holding  countries  which  have 
emancipated  their  laborers. — The  English  Colonies. — The  French 
Colonies.  The  Republic  of  Haiti. — Moral  and  material  state  of  the 
Spanish  possessions. — In  the  countries  where  the  institution  of 
slavery  exists,  the  number  of  slaves  has  increased  since  the  redemp- 
tion was  prohibited. — The  blame  which  on  this  account  has  been 
laid  upon  the  authorities  of  those  countries  might  be  attributed, 
for  the  same  cause  and  with  greater  reason,  to  the  English  cruisers. 
The  blame,  however,  belongs  exclusively  to  the  treaties  on  this 
matter  now  in  force 163 

Chapter  IX. — Mutiny  of  the  negroes  on  board  the  Ship  Regina  Ccelis 
and  bloody  destruction  of  the  whites  who  composed  the  crew. — 
Repugnant  demonstrations  of  joy  exhibited  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment on  the  occasion  of  that  butchery. — Attempts  made  by  the 
British  government  on  the  petition  of  its  Colonies  to  renew  the  re- 
demption of  negroes  under  another  name. — The  same  thing  at- 
tempted by  the  French  government. — Case  of  the  Ship  Charles  et 
Georges  captured  by  Portuguese  cruisers. — International  conflict  it 
produced  between  France  and  Portugal. — The  attitude  taken  by 
England  in  consequence  of  this  conflict. — Imperial  ordinance  of 
Napoleon  III  ordering  the  suspension  of  the  new  form  of  the  redemp-  ■ 
tion  of  negroes,  and  announcing  his  treaty  for  obtaining  Chinese  in 
the  English  possessions  in  the  East. — Detailed  analysis  of  the  re- 
gulations by  which  these  laborers  are  governed  in  the  Island  of 
Cuba. — Their  civil  condition  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  negro  slaves, 
and  it  is  even  worse  in  some  respects. — Remarkable  inconsistency 
which  results  between  the  idea  of  abolishing  the  redemption  of 
negroes  and  stimulating  the  servitude  of  the  Chinese. — Comments 
on  these  inconsistencies  to  show  their  true  phases  to  public  opi- 
nion     "*i 195 

Chapter  X, — Calamities  which  the  perverseness  of  the  Abolitionists 
has  occasioned  in  the  world. — Civil  war  of  the  United  States. — 
Origin  and  history  of  the  revolt  of  the  South. — Insurrection  at 
Harper's  Ferry. — Death  of  John  Brown. — Excitement  and  blasphe- 
mies which  it  called  forth  in  the  North,  and  in  the  slave  States. — 
Fruitless  efforts  to  maintain  peace. — Municipal  elections. — Parlia- 


■ 

312 

Page 

mentary  commotions. — The  election  of  Lincoln  renders  war  inevit- 
able.— Proclamations  of  the  Executive  abolishing  slavery  in  the 
rebellious  States  and  respecting  it  in  the  others. — The  consti- 
tutional legality  of  said  proclamations  analyzed. — Their  negative 
results  towards  the  re-establisment  of  the  Union. — Remarkable  do- 
cuments as  to  its  contradictory  sense. — Aspect  taken  by  the  civil 
war  after  the  issuing  of  the  said  proclamations.  —  Calamities 
brought  down  on  the  people,  -on  the  National  Treasury,  and  on  the 
public  credit 216 

Chapter  XI. — Anarchy  begins  to  manifest  itself  in  the  Northen 
States. — Political  parties  into  which  the  federals  are  divided,  and 
the  principles  that  each  profess. — Brief  sketch  of  their  respective 
political  history. — Their  characters  in  the  present  war. — Dangerous 
changes  produced  by  the  war  on  the  public  customs  of  the  country. 
— Supremacy  of  the  military  over  the  political  institutions  of  the 
Republic. — Famous  outrage  of  General  Burnsido  against  Represen- 
tative Vallandigham. — Commotion  produced  by  the  deed  in  all  the 
States. — Demonstrations  in  favor  of  peace  made  by  the  democrats 
to  check  the  progress  of  military  despotism. — Famous  meeting  in 
New  York  on  the  18th  of  May  1863.— Attitude  of  the  Governor  of 
the  State  in  favor  of  said  meeting. — Demonstrations  in  opposition 
by  the  dominant  party. — Means  of  which  the  government  avails 
itself  to  annul  the  combinations  of  the  partisans  of  peace. — New 
treaty  with  England  concerning  the  negroes. — The  invasion  of 
Maryland  and  Pensylvania  by  the  confederates  coincides  with  all 
that  has  been  said. — The  exasperation  of  the  political  parties  of  ' 
the  North  in  presence  of  the  common  danger. — Triumphs  of  the 
federals  in  the  war. — Republican  meeting  in  opposition  to  the 
democrats. — Some  emisaries  of  the  London  Abolitionists  take  part 
in  these  irritating  demonstrations.  —  The  conscription  of  three 
hundred  thousand  men. — Reasons  why  it  was  decreed,  and  manner 
in  which  the  interested  parties  explain  it. — Riot  in  New  York. — 
Horrors  of  anarchy. — Horrible  persecution  and  murder  of  negroes 
as  a  natural  result  of  so  many  aberrations 245 

Chapter  XII. — The  necessity  of  making  peace,  and  on  what  basis  it 
should  be  made. — Obstacles  which  the  question  presents  on  ac- 
count of  the  international  rights  in  reference  to  the  negroes. — 
Various  combinations  which  are  announced  for  the  purpose  of  put- 
ting an.  end  to  the  war. — They  are  analized  and  the  results  are  un- 
favorable.— The  peace  cannot  be  solid  and  lasting  unless  the  exist- 
ing treaties  on  the  redemption  are  revised. — With  this  fundamental 
improvement  the  peace  would  be  indestructible  between  the  North 
and  the  South. — Project  of  a  treaty  to  arrive  at  that  object. — 
The  great  question  whether  the  two  sections  should  unite  or  sepa- 
rate politically  at  the  time  of  making  peace. — Authoritative  opin- 
ions which  have  been  given  and  still  exist  in  favor  of  and  against 
both  objects  or  ends 299 

Chapter  XIII. — Features  which  the  international  treaties  should 
have  in  order  that  they  may  be  inviolate. — It  is  shown  that  these 
features  do  not  exist  in  the  treaties  which  have  been  made  for  the 
prohibition  of  the  redemption. — General  summary  of  all  the  propo- 
sitions demonstrated  in  this  work. — Doctrines  which  result  from 
them,  and  natural  applications  indicated  by  the  same. — Project  of 
a  general  treaty  to  restore  public  right  in  the  matter  relating  to  ne- 
groes, satisfying  true  morality,  protecting  all  interests  created  since 
the  discovery  of  America  and  improving  civilization  in  African 
soil. — Considerations  which  arise  out  of  the  said  project  of  treaty.  293 


.^- 


H 


^•r*? 


I  ,-?5r«8»p" 


^ 


y  k 


% v "     4 


*■■*■■■ 
v.vj 


■ 


j» 


Mfc& 


^ 


6^€ 


X 


^% 


